Morgan Stanley Sees AI Agents as a Boon, Not a Threat, for Call Center Software Firms

The rise of consumer artificial intelligence agents, such as Meta's Muse, is poised to benefit communications and software vendors rather than disrupt their business models, according to a new analysis from Morgan Stanley. In a note published Wednesday, the bank argued that these personal AI assistants could significantly expand the total volume of interactions between consumers and businesses.

A New Demand Dynamic

The core of the argument, presented by analyst Elizabeth Porter, is that AI will simultaneously make it easier for consumers to initiate contact and cheaper for businesses to respond. This dynamic counters the prevailing concern that AI would simply automate away the need for contact-center services. "Enterprise AI makes it cheaper to answer; consumer AI makes it easier to ask," Porter wrote.

This could lead to a net increase in communications volume and create new opportunities for usage-based monetization. For contact-center providers like NICE, Five9, and RingCentral, higher interaction volumes could help offset the risk of clients reducing human agent seats, a key pressure point on their traditional seat-based revenue models.

Sector-Specific Impacts

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Morgan Stanley identified several companies positioned to benefit from this trend:

• Twilio is seen as having the broadest exposure. The firm stands to gain from an increase in messages and calls initiated by AI agents for tasks like authentication, confirmations, and follow-ups, which fits its usage and software-attachment model.
• Shopify was named the most direct beneficiary in the e-commerce software space.
• Among web-presence providers, Wix is considered better positioned than GoDaddy. The note suggests agents will increasingly need to integrate with platforms that can book services and transact, rather than just display static information.

A Medium-Term Outlook

Despite the positive outlook, the analyst cautioned that this is a "stronger medium-term bull case" and not an immediate, near-term catalyst for the stocks. Porter specifically warned against extrapolating this potential upside into the companies' upcoming third-quarter financial results.