AI-Proof Stocks 2026: 10 Companies Built to Thrive While AI Disrupts Everything

Everyone's talking about which companies will build AI. But here's the question that actually matters for your portfolio: which companies will survive it?

AI is eating the economy. Coding agents are writing software. Chatbots are replacing call centers. AI art generators are putting designers out of work. If you're an investor, the ground is shifting under your feet. Fast.

But not all stocks are equally exposed. Some companies have moats so deep and business models so physical, so entrenched, so essential, that AI doesn't threaten them. It helps them. These aren't the flashy AI stocks everyone's chasing. They're the boring, dominant, almost-monopoly businesses that will quietly compound wealth while the disruption plays out around them.

Moatifi analyzed 458 S&P 500 stocks and scored each one on two dimensions: economic moat strength (how defensible the business is, scored 1 to 10) and AI durability (how resilient it is to AI disruption, also 1 to 10). The stocks below scored 9 out of 10 on both metrics. That's the top tier. The companies where a wide moat and AI resilience overlap.

Let's break them down.

What Makes a Stock "AI-Proof"?

Before diving into the list, it helps to understand what AI-proof actually means. It doesn't mean the company ignores AI. It means the company sits in a position where AI either:

  • Can't replicate what they do (physical assets, regulatory moats, classified technology)
  • Makes them stronger (AI increases demand for their product or deepens their competitive advantage)
  • Gets absorbed into their existing moat (they adopt AI as a feature, not a threat)

The worst place to be? Middleman businesses with no proprietary data, no physical infrastructure, and no switching costs. We'll get to those cautionary tales later.

Now, here are the 10 companies that scored highest on both moat strength and AI durability in Moatifi's free stock screener.

1. FICO (Fair Isaac Corporation)

Moat Score: 9 | AI Durability: 9

You've heard of your FICO score. What you might not realize is that Fair Isaac Corporation has something close to a monopoly on credit scoring in the United States. Over 90% of top lenders use FICO scores in their lending decisions. That's not a market position. That's an institution.

Here's the key insight: AI doesn't disrupt FICO. It feeds it. More data, more alternative data sources, more sophisticated machine learning models... all of that makes FICO's scoring engine more accurate and more valuable. The entire financial system is built around this one company's number. Switching costs are astronomical. Regulators reference FICO scores by name.

AI is a tailwind here, not a headwind.

See FICO's full moat analysis on Moatifi

2. KO (Coca-Cola)

Moat Score: 9 | AI Durability: 9

This is the simplest thesis on the list. AI cannot replicate the taste of Coca-Cola. It can't replicate the global distribution network that puts a red can within arm's reach of virtually every human on Earth. It can't replicate 130 years of brand equity.

Coca-Cola's moat is physical (bottling plants, distribution trucks, refrigerated coolers in 200+ countries) and psychological (brand recognition that's essentially hardwired into global culture). AI might optimize Coke's supply chain. It might help them run better ad campaigns. But it will never be a competitive threat.

When the world gets confusing, people reach for what's familiar. That's Coke.

See KO's full moat analysis on Moatifi

3. LMT (Lockheed Martin)

Moat Score: 9 | AI Durability: 9

Defense is the ultimate moat. Lockheed Martin builds the F-35 fighter jet, operates classified programs, and holds contracts that take decades to fulfill. You can't just start a competitor to Lockheed Martin. The barriers to entry involve security clearances, government relationships built over 50+ years, and technology that literally doesn't exist anywhere else.

AI doesn't threaten Lockheed. It's a moat widener. Autonomous systems, AI-powered targeting, drone swarms; these are all things Lockheed integrates into its existing platforms. The Department of Defense isn't going to hand AI defense contracts to a Silicon Valley startup. They're going to hand them to Lockheed.

See LMT's full moat analysis on Moatifi

4. LIN (Linde plc)

Moat Score: 9 | AI Durability: 9

Linde is the world's largest industrial gases company. They produce and distribute oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and other gases that are essential to manufacturing, healthcare, food processing, and (increasingly) semiconductor fabrication.

This is about as AI-proof as a business gets. You cannot digitize a gas molecule. Linde's moat is built on pipelines, production plants, and long-term supply contracts. These physical assets took decades and billions of dollars to build. An AI model can't replicate a cryogenic air separation plant.

If anything, AI accelerates demand. More data centers need cooling. More chip fabs need ultra-pure gases. Linde supplies both.

See LIN's full moat analysis on Moatifi

5. TMO (Thermo Fisher Scientific)

Moat Score: 9 | AI Durability: 9

Thermo Fisher is the picks-and-shovels play for the entire life sciences industry. They make lab equipment, analytical instruments, reagents, and consumables. If a scientist is doing research anywhere in the world, there's a very good chance they're using Thermo Fisher products.

The AI angle here is beautiful. AI-powered drug discovery is accelerating the pace of pharmaceutical research. More research means more experiments. More experiments mean more consumables, more lab equipment, more Thermo Fisher revenue. AI doesn't replace the physical work of running assays and analyzing samples. It just generates more of it.

See TMO's full moat analysis on Moatifi

6. PLD (Prologis)

Moat Score: 9 | AI Durability: 9

Prologis is the world's largest owner of logistics real estate. They own roughly 1.2 billion square feet of warehouse and distribution space across 19 countries. Think about that number for a second.

Here's the thing about AI and e-commerce: AI-powered shopping, automated recommendations, and conversational commerce don't eliminate the need for warehouses. They increase it. Every AI shopping assistant that makes it easier to buy things online means more packages need to ship. More packages need warehouse space. And Prologis owns the warehouses.

Their properties sit in the most desirable logistics locations near major population centers. You can't build more land next to Los Angeles or Tokyo. That's a permanent, physical moat.

See PLD's full moat analysis on Moatifi

7. CRM (Salesforce)

Moat Score: 9 | AI Durability: 9

Salesforce dominates enterprise Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software with a market share that dwarfs the competition. But the real moat isn't market share. It's switching costs.

Once a company runs its sales pipeline, customer data, and business processes through Salesforce, migrating away is a nightmare. Years of data, custom integrations, trained employees, automated workflows. It all lives in Salesforce.

And instead of being disrupted by AI, Salesforce has done something smart: they've embedded it. Einstein AI, Agentforce, and their growing suite of AI tools are features that deepen customer lock-in. You don't leave Salesforce because of AI. You stay because of the AI features Salesforce adds on top of your existing data.

See CRM's full moat analysis on Moatifi

8. QCOM (Qualcomm)

Moat Score: 9 | AI Durability: 9

Qualcomm designs the chips and holds the patents that make mobile communications work. If you're using a smartphone, there's a strong chance Qualcomm technology is inside it, even in many iPhones (via modem chips).

The AI connection is direct: on-device AI is the next big wave. Running AI models locally on your phone (instead of in the cloud) requires specialized silicon. Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors are leading that charge with dedicated neural processing units (NPUs). As on-device AI grows, Qualcomm's relevance grows with it.

Their patent portfolio is also a fortress. Decades of wireless communication patents create licensing revenue that's nearly impossible to compete away.

See QCOM's full moat analysis on Moatifi

9. ANSS (ANSYS)

Moat Score: 9 | AI Durability: 9

ANSYS makes simulation software used by engineers to test everything from airplane wings to semiconductor designs before they're physically built. If you've flown on a modern aircraft or used a recent chip, ANSYS software probably helped design it.

This is a company that most retail investors have never heard of. And that's part of the appeal. ANSYS dominates engineering simulation with decades of validated physics models and deep integration into customer workflows. Engineers trust ANSYS results because they've been validated against real-world outcomes for 50+ years.

AI doesn't replace simulation. AI accelerates it. AI can help set up simulations faster, explore more design variations, and optimize results. But you still need the physics engine underneath. That's ANSYS.

See ANSS's full moat analysis on Moatifi

10. DLR (Digital Realty Trust)

Moat Score: 9 | AI Durability: 9

This is the most direct AI beneficiary on the list. Digital Realty owns and operates data centers globally. AI models need to train somewhere. They need to run inference somewhere. That somewhere is a data center.

Digital Realty's moat comes from the sheer difficulty of building new data center capacity. You need land in the right locations, massive power supply (often hundreds of megawatts), cooling infrastructure, and network connectivity. Building a new data center campus takes years and billions of dollars.

Every new AI model, every new AI-powered product, every expansion of cloud computing, drives demand for Digital Realty's core product. AI literally runs on their infrastructure.

See DLR's full moat analysis on Moatifi

The Trap: Stocks That Look AI-Proof But Aren't

Not every company with physical assets is safe. Here are three cautionary examples that illustrate the difference between a real moat and a false sense of security.

Simon Property Group (SPG), Moat: 6, AI Durability: 3. Malls seem like they'd have a physical moat. Real estate, prime locations, long-term leases. But AI-powered e-commerce is accelerating the shift away from in-person retail. AI shopping assistants, virtual try-on, and personalized online recommendations all reduce the reason to visit a mall. Owning physical retail space is becoming a liability, not an asset. See SPG's analysis

Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), Moat: 3, AI Durability: 3. Pharmacies on every corner sounds defensible. But AI health platforms, telehealth, and automated prescription delivery are chipping away at the core value proposition. When an AI can triage your symptoms, connect you to a doctor, and have medication delivered to your door, the corner pharmacy loses its reason to exist. See WBA's analysis

Robert Half International (RHI), Moat: 0, AI Durability: 2. This is the scariest example. Robert Half is a staffing and recruiting agency. Their business model is connecting companies with temporary workers, especially in accounting, finance, and technology. AI coding agents and writing assistants are directly replacing the type of temporary knowledge workers Robert Half places. When the product you're selling (human labor for routine tasks) is exactly what AI replaces, there is no moat deep enough. See RHI's analysis

The pattern is clear. Physical assets alone don't make you AI-proof. You need physical assets that AI increases demand for (warehouses, data centers, lab equipment) rather than physical assets that AI routes around (malls, retail pharmacies).

The Common Thread

Look at the 10 stocks above. They share a few characteristics:

  • They own something AI can't copy. Physical infrastructure, regulatory positions, patent portfolios, classified technology, decades of validated data. These aren't things a foundation model can replicate.

  • AI increases demand for their core product. More AI means more data centers (DLR), more chips (QCOM), more drug research (TMO), more e-commerce warehouses (PLD), and more credit decisions (FICO).

  • They absorb AI as a feature, not a threat. Salesforce adds Einstein. Lockheed adds autonomous systems. ANSYS adds AI-accelerated simulation. The moat gets wider, not narrower.

  • Switching costs are enormous. Once you're embedded with FICO scores, Salesforce workflows, or ANSYS simulation models, you don't switch. The cost of migration is too high.

This is the playbook for finding AI-proof investments. Don't look for companies hiding from AI. Look for companies that AI makes more essential.

How to Find More AI-Proof Stocks

The 10 stocks above came from screening 458 S&P 500 companies on Moatifi's free stock screener. The screener lets you filter and sort by both moat strength and AI durability scores.

If you want to run this exact analysis yourself, try the "AI Durable" preset filter on the screener. It surfaces stocks with high scores on both dimensions, so you can see which companies in any sector are built to last through the AI transition.

You might find names you'd never expect. Industrial gas companies, simulation software makers, and warehouse landlords aren't the stocks CNBC is breathlessly covering every day. But they might be the ones that matter most for your portfolio over the next decade.

The Bottom Line

The AI revolution won't destroy every business equally. Some companies are in the blast radius. Others are standing behind the blast wall. And a select few are actually powered by the explosion.

The 10 stocks on this list aren't speculative AI bets. They're dominant businesses with deep moats that AI either can't touch or actively strengthens. That's a rare combination. And in a market obsessed with finding the next AI winner, the smartest move might be owning the companies that win regardless.

Check out Moatifi's free stock screener to explore AI durability scores across the entire S&P 500 and find your own AI-proof stocks.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not financial advice. Always do your own research and consider consulting a financial advisor before making investment decisions. Stock scores and analysis reflect Moatifi's methodology and are not guarantees of future performance.