Innodata Bets on Agentic AI: Is it the Next Revenue Wave?

Innodata Inc. INOD is increasingly positioning itself at the center of Agentic AI, a fast-emerging layer of generative AI where autonomous agents perform multi-step tasks with limited human intervention. Management’s third-quarter 2025 update suggests this shift is not theoretical—it is already translating into commercial opportunities tied to evaluation, refinement and safety of agentic systems.

Unlike basic model training, Agentic AI introduces new complexity — agents must be tested for task success, behavioral consistency, decision logic and failure modes. Innodata has built specialized “judge” frameworks—task-success, diagnostic and profiling judges—that help big-tech model builders evaluate and fine-tune autonomous agents operating in real-world workflows. These capabilities are increasingly embedded in reinforcement learning pipelines, making them recurring rather than one-off services.

The revenue potential lies in depth, not breadth. Agentic systems demand continuous iteration, monitoring and retraining, expanding the lifetime value of customer engagements. Management noted that Agentic AI work often builds on existing relationships with hyperscalers and frontier model developers, allowing Innodata to layer higher-value services on top of its core data-engineering base.

Recent wins reinforce this trajectory. In January 2026, Innodata was selected by Palantir PLTR to support advanced AI deployments involving complex multimodal data—an example of agent-like systems operating in high-stakes environments where precision and reliability are critical.

Financially, Innodata enters this phase from a position of strength, with expanding margins, strong cash generation and guidance for more than 45% growth in 2025. If Agentic AI adoption accelerates as enterprises move from pilots to production, Innodata’s early investments could unlock a durable next wave of revenue rather than a short-cycle AI spike.

INOD’s Competitive Landscape in Agentic AI

In the emerging Agentic AI arena, two peers that investors are watching alongside Innodata are Upstart Holdings UPST and C3.ai AI. Both companies are carving differentiated paths in AI that touch aspects of autonomy, evaluation, and enterprise deployment.

Upstart isn’t a traditional data-engineering firm, but its AI-driven credit decisioning platforms rely on advanced autonomous models that continuously iterate on consumer risk predictions. Upstart’s focus on automated decision frameworks parallels Innodata’s “judge” systems for agent evaluation, underscoring how autonomous logic layers are monetized in vertical applications. Investors should watch Upstart’s expansion into new loan products as a barometer for broader agentic value creation.

C3.ai, by contrast, offers a comprehensive enterprise AI platform that includes model deployment, monitoring, and governance—core elements of scaling agentic systems in production. C3.ai’s push into autonomous predictive maintenance and real-time optimization mirrors the operational dimensions where Innodata’s services may intersect or compete. While each plays in adjacent segments of the agentic ecosystem, both Upstart and C3.ai highlight the competitive pressures and total addressable market that Innodata aims to capture with its specialized AI data services.

INOD’s Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates

Shares of Innodata have gained 23.1% in the past six months, outperforming the Zacks Technology Services industry’s 3.9% growth.

INOD 6-Month Price Performance

From a valuation standpoint, INOD trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 45.86, much higher than the industry’s average of 23.64.

P/E (F12M)

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for INOD’s 2026 earnings has remained unchanged at $1.20 in the past 60 days. The company is expected to report 89 cents per share in 2025.
 

INOD currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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