Innodata's Agentic AI Bet Gathers Steam: Can Data Be the Next Moat?

Innodata Inc. INOD is leaning into one of the most transformative shifts in artificial intelligence — the rise of Agentic AI. Management believes the next phase of enterprise adoption will hinge less on raw scale and more on “smart data,” or carefully curated datasets that enable autonomous agents to reason, plan and act across complex environments. This positions the company at the intersection of model training, evaluation and simulation, where demand for precision data services is accelerating.Innodata is broadening its footprint with major technology customers. A long-standing client recently expanded its scope of work, while another big tech relationship is scaling rapidly from a minimal revenue base into a multi-million-dollar engagement. These wins underscore the company’s strength in scaling pilot projects into full production contracts as enterprises integrate agentic capabilities more deeply into their operations.Beyond data annotation, Innodata is investing in custom pipelines, simulation datasets and safety evaluation platforms that support agent-based AI. Management sees these services as foundational for enterprises seeking factuality, reliability and compliance in their AI systems. Importantly, the company views Agentic AI as a catalyst not only for digital services but also for robotics, with the potential to drive a “ChatGPT moment” in hardware deployment at the edge.How It Stacks Up to CompetitorsMicrosoft Corporation MSFT is pursuing Agentic AI from a cloud platform perspective, embedding agent services across Azure and its productivity suite. Through Azure AI Foundry and the Foundry Agent Service, Microsoft enables enterprises to design, deploy and manage autonomous agents at scale. Its Copilot ecosystem further integrates agentic workflows into Office, Teams and Dynamics, creating stickiness across end-user applications. Microsoft’s scale in infrastructure and partnerships with OpenAI provide an unmatched distribution channel, though its agentic strategy is primarily tied to platform adoption and consumption economics rather than specialized data services.Unisys Corporation UIS is approaching the opportunity through enterprise workflow automation, focusing on agentic AI deployments in IT services and support. Its Service Experience Accelerator integrates generative and agentic AI with knowledge management to automate service desk interactions, capture institutional knowledge and improve customer response times. Unisys is emphasizing domain-specific implementations, particularly in mission-critical environments where agent reliability reduces costs and boosts efficiency. While Unisys differentiates through deep workflow integration, its agentic AI scope remains service-centric, positioning it closer to managed services than core data enablement.INOD’s Price Performance, Valuation & EstimatesShares of Innodata have declined 10.6% in the past three months compared with the industry’s fall of 3.8%.INOD Three-Month Price PerformanceImage Source: Zacks Investment ResearchFrom a valuation standpoint, INOD trades at a forward price-to-sales ratio of 4.9, higher than the industry’s average of 1.66.Image Source: Zacks Investment ResearchThe Zacks Consensus Estimate for INOD’s 2025 earnings per share (EPS) implies a year-over-year decline of 16.9%, while the same for 2026 indicates an increase of 42.3%. The EPS estimates for 2025 and 2026 have increased in the past 60 days.Image Source: Zacks Investment ResearchINOD stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.Zacks Names #1 Semiconductor StockThis under-the-radar company specializes in semiconductor products that titans like NVIDIA don't build. It's uniquely positioned to take advantage of the next growth stage of this market. And it's just beginning to enter the spotlight, which is exactly where you want to be.With strong earnings growth and an expanding customer base, it's positioned to feed the rampant demand for Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Internet of Things. Global semiconductor manufacturing is projected to explode from $452 billion in 2021 to $971 billion by 2028.See This Stock Now for Free >>Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Microsoft Corporation (MSFT): Free Stock Analysis Report Unisys Corporation (UIS): Free Stock Analysis Report Innodata Inc. (INOD): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).Zacks Investment ResearchWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks