It's been a rough Wednesday for UiPath (PATH) and its automation software peers. The culprit? OpenAI just dropped a new enterprise product called Presence, and investors are worried that the AI giant might eat their lunch.
OpenAI's Presence is essentially a platform that lets companies deploy AI agents for customer service and internal workflows. Think of it as a ready-made system where you can set up voice or chat agents to handle customer support, outbound sales, or employee service requests — all with built-in guardrails, approval rules, and human escalation controls. And it's not just theoretical: OpenAI says it's already using Presence to power its own English-language support line at 1-888-GPT-0090, where it resolves 75% of inbound issues without any human help. The company also claims that its Codex-powered improvement process reduced human handoffs by 15 percentage points in just 10 days.
Some big names are already testing the waters. BBVA is exploring AI-powered voice support in Mexico, SoftBank is trying out Japanese-language customer conversations, and IAG is evaluating the platform for customer support during high-demand events like severe weather.
For investors, the fear is straightforward: if companies can build automation directly into their software environments using AI agents from OpenAI, why would they need traditional robotic process automation (RPA) tools from companies like UiPath? That question sent UiPath shares down 13.16% to $10.45 on Wednesday.
The pain wasn't limited to UiPath. Other enterprise software stocks also took a hit: ServiceNow (NOW), Salesforce (CRM), SAP (SAP), and Palantir (PLTR) all traded lower on Wednesday. It seems the market is pricing in a future where AI agents become the new default for enterprise automation, potentially squeezing out legacy players.
Looking at UiPath's technical picture, the stock has been in a longer-term downtrend. It's down 16.9% over the past 12 months, and its 50-day simple moving average remains below its 200-day moving average after a death cross in March. The shares are trading below the 200-day moving average of $12.93, though they're still above their 20-day, 50-day, and 100-day moving averages — suggesting that recent support levels are being tested. The MACD indicator is below its signal line, which points to weakening bullish momentum. Key resistance sits near $11.50, while $10.00 is an important support level above the 52-week low of $9.20.
So, is this a buying opportunity or a warning sign? That depends on whether you think OpenAI's Presence will truly disrupt the RPA market or if the sell-off is overdone. Either way, Wednesday's action shows that the AI competition in enterprise software is heating up — and not everyone is coming out a winner.
