By Anhata Rooprai

Feb 10 (Reuters) - Freshworks ( FRSH ) forecast annual

revenue above Wall Street estimates on Tuesday, betting on

growing adoption of its software tools that incorporate

artificial intelligence to automate customer support and IT

services.

Businesses are ​increasingly adopting AI-driven software to

efficiently manage IT ‌services, automate workflows and improve

customer support, driving demand for companies such as

Freshworks ( FRSH ), ServiceNow ( NOW ) and Salesforce ( CRM ).

The ⁠forecast comes amid widespread concern surrounding the

potential impact of newer ⁠AI tools on various services offered

by established software ‌firms, although analysts ‌have downplayed

the risks.

On January 30, Anthropic introduced plugins for customer

support, legal, finance and sales on ​Claude Cowork, automating

tasks for white-collar ‌workers and potentially disrupting

software firms, contributing to a sector-wide selloff.

Freshworks ( FRSH ) CEO Dennis Woodside said customers won't just

build everything directly, ​arguing that creating full enterprise

IT ​and customer-service ‌systems is complex and takes years.

"We've spent a decade to build a system of record and a

system of interaction that ⁠understands everything about your IT

environment," Woodside said in an interview ⁠with Reuters.

On concerns that AI could shrink the number of paid software

seats, Woodside said Freshworks ( FRSH ) is still growing its user count.

"We're taking share from much bigger incumbents, like ServiceNow ( NOW )

and BMC, and Atlassian, and ⁠that's ‌how we're growing our

business," he said.

Freshworks ( FRSH ) sells licenses for ‌tools like Freshdesk for

customer service and Freshservice for IT support, which ⁠are

billed per the number of people logging into those services,

unlike usage-based pricing used by some AI products.

The company forecast revenue between $952 million and $960

million for 2026, above estimates of $945.3 million, according

to data compiled by LSEG.

It forecast adjusted profit per share to be between 55 cents

and 57 cents for 2026, below ​estimates of 69 cents, as the

company expects a higher tax rate.

Fourth-quarter revenue rose 14% to $222.7 million, beating

estimates of $218.8 million. Adjusted profit per ​share of 14

cents also exceeded ‌estimates of 11 cents.