Jefferies analysts just released a basket of major companies at risk of artificial intelligence disruption, providing some guideposts for investors at a fragile time for U.S. stocks. Fears have spread in the market that rapidly developing artificial intelligence models will soon disrupt an array of traditional business models, spurring a sell-off at various times this year in software-as-a-service providers, insurance services, logistics and real estate stocks. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) is down more than 23% this year, entering a bear market. The selling has sometimes been indiscriminate, many investors say, but the weakness continues to plague several big name companies, such as Robinhood and ServiceNow . And concern that the selling stirred by AI will tip over into other industries remains high, keeping investors alert to potential risks ahead. “While we have seen a recent rebound, the sector remains exposed to further AI developments,” Jefferies head of quantitative strategy Desh Peramunetilleke wrote in a Friday note to clients. “The software sector is trading at 21x PE, the same as the market, and for somewhat similar EPS growth (16% EPS CAGR). However, given future uncertainties, the sector could even trade at a discount.” To find stocks with significant AI-related risks, Jefferies created an “AI risk” basket using a combination of return profiles and an AI-assisted search algorithm. What the investment bank found was 150 stocks with a market cap above $1 billion that face potential AI risks such as asset repricing, demand substitution, labor substitution, moat decay and pricing pressure. In order to find vulnerable stocks, Jefferies searched for sub-industries that could be hurt by various threats of disruption. The firm then combined those findings with stock-level returns and ran them through a series of pre-trained prompts to find stock-specific, AI risk. Take a look at a selection of the stocks below: Unity Software is at risk that AI content will lower switching costs, allowing developers to more easily use AI to recreate and migrate assets across platforms, weakening the moat-like appeal of Unity’s ecosystem, Jefferies found. Unity has plunged 59% so far in 2026, among the worst performances in Jefferies’ basket. The videogame engine maker slumped 37% in February after earlier in the month giving disappointing first-quarter revenue guidance. AI disruption fears have only exacerbated investor reaction. Datadog , MongoDB and ServiceNow are other software companies hit by AI disruption fears. Jefferies analysts, led by Peramunetilleke, found that MongoDB’s moat could get disrupted if AI coding tools weaken database selection, leaving developers less tied to a single database architecture as switching costs decline. Duolingo is also at risk. Shares of the language learning website have plummeted 42% so far this year after first-quarter results and 2026 bookings expectations fell short and AI fears spread. Jefferies’ screen placed Duolingo into the risk category of “replicability,” particularly because of the risk that AI tutors could commoditize language learning. Other stocks in Jefferies’ basket of stocks at risk included Accenture , Robinhood Markets and DoorDash . Robinhood, down 33% this year, could be hurt if AI agents disintermediate retail trading, the Wall Street firm said.
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Friday, October 2
