Two Under-the-Radar AI Stocks Quietly Reshaping Their Industries—And Why Investors Should Pay Attention

While the financial world obsesses over pure-play artificial intelligence companies, a different breed of AI powerhouse is flying below the radar. Companies like Datadog and Workiva aren’t household names in the AI investment community, yet they’re achieving remarkable success by weaving AI technology into their core business models. These under-the-radar AI stocks have recently provided fresh evidence that their strategies are working—and that savvy investors may be overlooking substantial opportunities.

The tech world tends to bifurcate into two camps: companies built entirely around AI, and legacy software players scrambling to catch up. Datadog and Workiva belong squarely in the latter category, but that positioning could be precisely what makes them compelling plays for discerning portfolios. Unlike pure-play AI firms, these companies bring established customer bases, proven revenue models, and operational expertise—all of which become force multipliers when combined with artificial intelligence capabilities.

Datadog’s Hidden AI Revenue Engine Is Accelerating

Datadog specializes in cloud observability—providing businesses with real-time visibility into their digital infrastructure and instantly alerting them when technical problems emerge. The platform serves enterprises across retail, entertainment, healthcare, and beyond. However, the company’s trajectory changed when it began infusing artificial intelligence throughout its ecosystem.

The integration started with Bits AI, an AI assistant embedded into Datadog’s core observability platform to streamline workflows. But management has since expanded far beyond that initial offering. New products like LLM Observability allow developers to monitor costs, troubleshoot issues, and even detect “drift”—that telltale degradation in model performance over time. For businesses adopting third-party models from OpenAI rather than building proprietary systems, Datadog developed OpenAI Monitoring to track usage patterns, expenses, error rates, and response latencies.

The business impact tells the real story. By the close of Q3 2025, Datadog had amassed 32,000 customers, with over 5,000 actively using at least one AI product—representing a stunning 67% year-over-year increase. Even more striking: AI-related revenue jumped to 12% of total quarterly revenue, doubling from just 6% in the prior-year period. Company CFO David Obstler specifically highlighted accelerating revenue growth among the AI customer segment, signaling that this isn’t a fleeting trend but sustained momentum.

The recent earnings reports have provided updated evidence on this trajectory. With Datadog having retreated 31% from its 52-week highs before reporting, the company had opportunity to prove that its AI business remains on an accelerating path. Should those results confirm continued expansion among AI customers and AI-driven revenue, investors who missed the initial rally could see a meaningful recovery unfold.

Workiva: The Under-the-Radar AI Beneficiary in Enterprise Software

Workiva operates in the often-unglamorous world of enterprise data aggregation and reporting. Large organizations juggle dozens of productivity, storage, and accounting applications simultaneously—a reality that creates logistical nightmares for managers compiling reports for executive leadership and regulators. Workiva’s platform solves this by integrating with major business applications and consolidating data onto a unified dashboard.

The company took this proven foundation and layered on artificial intelligence. Workiva’s AI assistant transforms simple text prompts into detailed, contextually aware content. Imagine a manager needing to draft a cybersecurity disclosure for an SEC filing; they can now prompt Workiva’s AI to generate that content directly, with the system understanding the broader context of every document in the Workiva ecosystem. Since the AI capability is woven throughout the platform, managers access it without disrupting their existing workflows.

The financial results validate this strategy. Workiva achieved 21% revenue growth in Q3 2025, reaching $224 million and matching the company’s fastest quarterly growth rate of the year. More impressively, high-value customer cohorts are expanding at an accelerating pace—businesses spending at least $300,000 annually grew by 41%, while the $500,000+ customer segment surged 42%, with both segments showing quarter-over-quarter acceleration.

Based on Q3’s performance, Workiva raised its full-year 2025 revenue guidance to $881 million—a figure that provides a clear benchmark for evaluating the company’s trajectory. Recent results that meet or exceed this revised forecast could spark a re-rating, particularly given that the stock already appears reasonably valued at current levels.

Why Investors Are Overlooking These Quiet AI Success Stories

The investment community’s tendency to chase headline-grabbing AI narratives has created an interesting blind spot. Companies that are methodically integrating artificial intelligence into working products—generating measurable revenue uplift and customer adoption—remain underappreciated relative to their execution.

Both Datadog and Workiva share a common characteristic: they’re not trying to reinvent the world. Instead, they’re solving specific, tangible problems for paying customers, and AI is the enabling technology that makes those solutions dramatically more compelling. Datadog helps enterprises observe their cloud infrastructure with AI-powered troubleshooting. Workiva helps enterprises navigate regulatory and reporting complexity with AI-assisted content generation. Neither company is a household name, yet both are capturing meaningful AI-driven revenue growth.

The historical precedent matters here. Early investors who identified companies quietly integrating transformative technologies—before those themes became saturated in financial media—often captured outsized returns. The difference between identifying such opportunities early versus chasing them once they’ve become consensus trades can be substantial.

The Path Forward

Both companies have recently presented updated evidence on their AI initiatives. For investors seeking exposure to artificial intelligence adoption that isn’t already priced into mega-cap AI darlings, these under-the-radar AI stocks merit closer scrutiny. Datadog’s expanding AI customer base and accelerating AI revenue, combined with Workiva’s success driving premium customer expansion through AI-enhanced functionality, suggest both companies have found genuine, scalable paths to AI-driven growth.

The investment playbook often rewards those willing to look beyond obvious choices. In the case of Datadog and Workiva, that contrarian posture could prove quite profitable.