Intuit, already positioned as an early AI adopter through CEO Sasan Goodarzi, saw its stock get hit hard during the market’s “SaaSpocalypse” selloff fears—despite its internal strategy to treat AI as a tool rather than a substitute. The piece recounts layoffs and AI hiring shifts in earlier years as evidence of management’s proactive stance. Investors, however, punished the company during the period when software-as-a-service and broader “AI displacement” narratives drove aggressive valuation de-risking. The article notes Goodarzi’s view that AI would become as impactful as foundational technologies, but says the timing of investor reactions limited Intuit’s ability to respond during a closed quarter. For higher education technology leaders and business school stakeholders, the episode underscores how AI investments do not automatically stabilize enterprise outcomes when market expectations shift abruptly.
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