Lyon Securities: AI's concern about the “software extinction” is exaggerated, and the SaaS moat remains strong

On 21 July, in an in-depth thematic report, CLSA noted that, while the rise of artificial intelligence models raised concerns about the subversion of the software industry, the software, SaaS, was far from dying. However, the industry still needs to undergo profound changes before investor confidence returns. “We are surrounded by business details, compliance requirements and information filters managed by software. AI 'vibe-coding ' can dispel all this, and it sounds unrealistic. We found the moats everywhere — the Workflow Directory of Service Now, the marketing links at Saifou, the acoustic precision database, Microsoft's ubiquitous presence, the Human Resources Proficiency of Workday and even Adobe's font library.” The Lyon securities gave Microsoft and Adobe the “Big Disk Run” ratings at a target price of $535 and $300 respectively; Oracle and Saifou were given the “Holding” ratings at a target price of $145 and $165 respectively; and Servicenow and Worldday were given the “Big Disk Run” ratings at a target price of $72 and $92, respectively。