Two AI Stocks Poised for Growth as Enterprises Accelerate AI Integration in 2026

With the artificial intelligence revolution reshaping enterprise software, two overlooked companies are capturing significant momentum by embedding AI capabilities into their core platforms. Datadog and Workiva represent a growing category of ai stocks that have moved beyond hype to demonstrate tangible commercial returns from their AI investments. As both companies prepare to release earnings in mid-February, their results could validate a broader shift in how enterprises are deploying AI technology.

Why These AI Stocks Are Attracting Institutional Attention Right Now

The technology sector has seen explosive enthusiasm for pure-play artificial intelligence companies, but a quieter story is unfolding among established software vendors. Companies that already have deep customer relationships and proven products are discovering that AI integration—rather than AI replacement—can unlock substantial new revenue streams. Datadog and Workiva exemplify this approach, showing that ai stocks don’t have to be AI-native startups to capture meaningful share of the AI opportunity.

Both organizations are reporting earnings during a critical window: Datadog on February 10 and Workiva on February 19. Their third-quarter results provided early evidence that enterprises are willing to pay premium prices for AI-enhanced capabilities, suggesting that the current market enthusiasm for artificial intelligence may have solid commercial foundations.

Datadog: Monetizing AI Across Cloud Infrastructure

Datadog operates in cloud observability, helping organizations monitor their digital infrastructure and detect problems before they impact operations. The platform gained traction across diverse industries—from retail to healthcare to entertainment—by solving a fundamental operational problem.

The company’s approach to AI demonstrates how legacy software can evolve. Rather than building AI from scratch, Datadog developed multiple products that address specific enterprise needs: Bits AI accelerates workflows within their core platform, while LLM Observability helps developers monitor costs and performance degradation of large language models. For enterprises adopting third-party AI models like those from OpenAI, Datadog created specialized monitoring tools to track usage, expenses, and response times.

The financial results validate this strategy. In the third quarter of 2025, Datadog had 32,000 customers, with over 5,000 using at least one AI product. This represented a 67% year-over-year increase in AI adoption. More significantly, AI-related revenue jumped to 12% of quarterly revenue (from 6% in the prior year), effectively doubling its contribution. The company’s CFO attributed accelerating growth specifically to the AI customer segment, highlighting the momentum building in this area.

The stock currently trades 31% below its 52-week peak, creating a potential entry point if the upcoming earnings call confirms that AI customer growth rates have sustained or improved through year-end.

Workiva: Enterprise AI Driving Premium Customer Expansion

Workiva addresses a pain point for large organizations: consolidating data from dozens of applications to generate reports and regulatory filings. The platform aggregates information from accounting software, storage systems, and productivity tools, then provides templates to accelerate report creation.

The company’s AI strategy focuses on making this process more efficient and accessible. Workiva’s AI assistant can transform simple text prompts into detailed content—such as drafting cybersecurity disclosures required by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Because the AI assistant has context about every document in the platform, it delivers more accurate and relevant outputs than generic AI tools. Critically, it’s embedded throughout the user experience, so employees can invoke it without disrupting their workflow.

The commercial impact is evident: Workiva’s third-quarter revenue grew 21% to $224 million, matching the year’s fastest growth rate. More telling is the customer composition shift: businesses spending $300,000 annually increased 41%, while those spending $500,000 jumped 42%—both accelerating from the previous quarter. This signals that existing customers are expanding their usage, which suggests strong product-market fit and pricing power.

Based on this momentum, Workiva raised its full-year 2025 revenue guidance to $881 million. If the company delivers or exceeds this target at the February 19 earnings report, the stock could extend its gains, particularly given its currently attractive valuation relative to growth.

The Real Opportunity in These Overlooked AI Stocks

The broader market remains fixated on pure-play AI companies and chipmakers, but ai stocks like Datadog and Workiva reveal an important reality: enterprises are not waiting for new vendors to address AI needs. Instead, they’re paying premium prices to existing software providers that can rapidly embed AI capabilities into trusted platforms.

This dynamic creates a distinctive advantage for established vendors with large customer bases, strong financial positions, and relevant problems to solve with AI. The financial data suggests that the early phase of AI monetization is moving from theoretical to practical—customers are upgrading subscriptions and increasing spending.

The key question investors should monitor over the next week is whether both companies can sustain these growth rates and AI adoption numbers. If February’s earnings confirm the trends evident in the third quarter, these names could attract broader recognition as pragmatic ways to gain exposure to enterprise AI deployment.