Assessing moats, business models, and valuations in the Agentic era

Research evidence excerpt

Assessing moats, business models, and valuations in the Agentic era

Equity Research

20 July 2026 | 5:01AM BST

EUROPE TECHNOLOGY: SOFTWARE

Agentic AI is reshaping the enterprise software stack, changing customer priorities, Mohammed Moawalla

+44(20)7774-1726 |

and shifting investment budgets at a pace faster than any previous technology mohammed.moawalla@gs.com

Goldman Sachs International

transition. This shift has contributed to a broad sell-off in European software, with

Deepshikha Agarwalour coverage share prices declining on average by c.37% from their 52-week highs, +1(212)934-6961 |

as investors reassess incumbent value propositions against agile, well-funded AI deepshikha.agarwal@gs.comGoldman Sachs India SPL

challengers, particularly from the US. Uzair Merchant

+44(20)7774-7645 |

Rather than causing full disruptive displacement, we expect AI to redistribute value uzair.merchant@gs.comGoldman Sachs International

across the software stack where incumbents are likely to retain control of base Ahlam Haouach

applications and mission-critical, regulated systems of record. However, in our view, +44(20)7051-8714ahlam.haouach@gs.com|

incremental value will increasingly accrue to the orchestration, agentic, and Goldman Sachs International

contextual layers built on top of these systems. To capture this value, software

monetisation models are transitioning from pure seat-based licensing to hybrid

structures that incorporate consumption- and outcome-based pricing. While

companies largely remain in the experimentation phase of AI, we expect the cost

dynamics between LLMs to become a greater focus as companies seek to optimise AI

spend contingent on achieving sufficient ROI.

Observing prior disruption cycles, we think it is likely to take a multi-year period for