Although software stocks have slumped in 2026 on fears that artificial intelligence will disrupt their business, several names are more likely than others to not only survive but to thrive, according to UBS. In a new note to clients, UBS analysts pointed to Microsoft , ServiceNow , Autodesk and HubSpot as stocks that could see their shares surge, despite the broad downturn in the software sector. "We are benchmark the sector ... and see selective opportunities," UBS strategist Andrew Garthwaite said Wednesday in a note to clients. Among their other advantages, many software stocks are also a play on the rise of economies outside the U.S. and the sliding greenback. "Software in the U.S. is one of the biggest international earners and historically has (along with capital goods) been the biggest beneficiary from a weaker dollar," Garthwaite added. The sell-off in software stocks picked up in early February after Anthropic launched a suite of tools in its Claude Cowork AI agent, with the aim of streamlining legal, finance and product marketing tasks. Despite a brief bounceback, the stocks tumbled again as the AI scare trade hit other sectors, such as real estate and wealth UBS management companies. UBS said that its software picks all have price-to-earnings ratios below their historic norm, at the same time as the entire group is oversold by 6.1 standard deviations. The quartet of recommended stocks, all buy-rated at UBS, also have had positive earnings revisions. In addition, software stocks appear to have decoupled from artificial intelligence credit spreads, which could prove bullish. By way of example, UBS pointed to Oracle's stable credit default swap rate in 2026 — a period when software stocks as a whole have underperformed the market by 19%. Microsoft and Autodesk are both down about 22% in the past six months, while ServiceNow has plunged 40%, according to FactSet data. The worst of the group? HubSpot has collapsed 69% over the past year.
