5 AI stocks to consider buying and holding for the long term

Many AI applications are still in development, offering ground-floor buying opportunities in their stocks. Below are some established companies that five of Fool.co.uk’s contract writers like as investments to consider buying to capitalise on this transformational technology.

What it does: Alphabet is a global technology company best known for Google, YouTube, Android, and cloud services.

By Mark Hartley. When considering an AI investment for the long term, Google’s parent company Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) stands out. It has emerged as a key player in the AI space, leveraging its vast data resources and computational power to dig deep roots into the industry. Through DeepMind and its Gemini AI models, Alphabet is at the forefront of generative AI development. Google Cloud offers scalable AI tools and infrastructure for businesses, while AI enhancements in products like Search, Gmail, and YouTube are well-positioned to benefit from advertising revenue.

Alphabet’s expansive ecosystem gives it a strategic advantage in training and deploying AI models at scale.

A significant risk, however, lies in the potential disruption of its core search business. As AI chatbots and generative search become more prevalent, traditional search advertising could face margin pressure. Additionally, if faces increased regulatory scrutiny on data usage, antitrust concerns and competition from rivals like Microsoft and Amazon.

Mark Hartley doesn’t own shares in any of the stocks mentioned.

What it does: Cellebrite is the global leader in decrypting mobile phones and other devices supporting digital forensic investigations.

By Zaven Boyrazian. Many AI stocks today are unproven. That’s why I prefer established players leveraging AI to improve their existing mission-critical products like Cellebrite (NASDAQ:CLBT).

Cellebrite specialises in extracting encrypted data from mobile phones and other devices aiding law enforcement and enterprises in criminal and cybersecurity investigations. Over 90% of crime commited today has a digital element. And when it comes to decrypting mobile phones, Cellebrite is the global gold standard.

The company is now leveraging AI to analyse encrypted data – drastically accelerating a task that’s historically been increadibly labour intensive identifying patterns, discovering connections, and establishing leads.

Most of Cellebrite’s revenue comes from law enforcement, exposing Cellebrite to the risk of budget cuts. In fact, fears of lower US federal spending is why the stock dropped sharply in early 2025. And with a premium valuation, investors can expect more volatility moving forward. But in the long run, Cellebrite has what it takes to be an AI winner in my mind. That’s why I’ve already bought shares.

Zaven Boyrazian owns shares in Cellebrite.

What it does: Dell Technologies provides a broad range of IT products and services and is an influential player in AI.

By Royston Wild. Dell Technologies (NYSE:DELL) isn’t one of the more fashionable names in the realm of artificial intelligence (AI). The good news is that this means it trades at a whopping discount to many of its peers.

For this financial year (to January 2026), City analysts think earnings will soar 41% year on year, leaving it on a price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of 12.6 times. Such readings are as rare as hen’s teeth in the high-growth tech industry.

In addition, Dell shares also trade on a price-to-earnings growth (PEG) ratio of 0.3 for this year. Any reading below 1 implies a share is undervalued.

These modest readings fail to reflect the exceptional progress the company’s making in AI, in my opinion. Indeed, Dell last month raised guidance for the current quarter as it announced “unprecedented demand for our AI-optimised servers” during January-March.

It booked $12.1bn in AI orders in the last quarter alone, beating the entire total for the last financial year. Dell is a major supplier of server infrastructure that let Nvidia’s high-power chips do their thing.

Dell’s shares could sink if unfavourable developments in the ongoing tariff wars transpire. But the company’s low valuation could help limit the scale of any falls.

Royston Wild does not own shares in Dell or Nvidia.

What it does: Salesforce is a customer relationship management (CRM) software company that is developing AI agents.

By Edward Sheldon, CFA. We’ve all seen the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in recent years. Using apps like ChatGPT and Gemini, we can do a lot of amazing things today. These apps are just the start of the AI story, however. I expect the next chapter to be about AI agents – software programmes that can complete tasks autonomously and increase business productivity exponentially.

One company that is active in this space is Salesforce (NYSE: CRM). It’s a CRM software company that has recently developed an agentic AI offering for businesses called ‘Agentforce’. It’s still early days here. But already the company is having a lot of success with this offering, having signed up 8,000 customers since the product’s launch last October.

Now, Salesforce is not the only company developing AI agents. So, competition from rivals is a risk. I like the fact that the company’s software is already embedded in over 150,000 organisations worldwide though. This could potentially give it a major competitive advantage in the agentic AI race.

Edward Sheldon has positions in Salesforce.

What it does: Salesforce is a cloud-based software company specialising in customer relationship management, helping businesses manage sales, marketing, support, and data.

By Ben McPoland. I think Salefsforce (NYSE: CRM) looks well set up to benefit in the age of AI. Specifically, its Agentforce platform, which lets businesses deploy AI agents to handle various tasks, could be the company’s next big growth engine.

By the end of April, it had already closed over 8,000 deals, just six months after launching Agentforce. Half of those were paid deals, taking its combined data cloud and AI annual recurring revenue above $1bn.

Granted, that looks like small potatoes set against the $41.2bn in sales it’s expected to generate this fiscal year. But it’s still very early days, and management reckons the digital labour market opportunity could run into the trillions of dollars.

Of course, it’s always best to treat such mind-boggling projections with a healthy dose of scepticism. And the company does face stiff competition in the AI agent space, especially from Microsoft and ServiceNow.

Nevertheless, I’m bullish here. Salesforce is already deeply embedded in sales, service, and marketing. Its AI agents slot into existing workflows, which I think will prove to be a big advantage over unproven AI upstarts.

Ben McPoland owns shares of Salesforce. 

The post 5 AI stocks to consider buying and holding for the long term appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.

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John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. The Motley Fool UK has recommended Alphabet, Amazon, Cellebrite, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Salesforce. Views expressed on the companies mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the official recommendations we make in our subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. Here at The Motley Fool we believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.

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