IBM revenue miss signals cautious enterprise spending for monday.com sales teams

IBM said on July 14 that preliminary second-quarter revenue would be $17.2 billion, below analyst estimates of $17.86 billion, after clients shifted late-June capital spending toward servers, storage and memory purchases. Chief executive Arvind Krishna said numerous large deals did not close on time, a reminder that enterprise buyers are still willing to spend, but only when the timing and return are clear.

The miss landed in the part of IBM’s business that matters most as a market signal: software and infrastructure. IBM also said its mainframe business was part of the shortfall, and the company’s preliminary adjusted earnings per share came in at $2.93, below the $3.01 estimate. IBM shares fell 25% on July 14, their worst one-day decline on record, underscoring how sharply investors react when enterprise demand looks uneven rather than outright strong.

For monday.com sales teams, IBM’s warning is a useful read on what large customers are demanding before they sign. Enterprise buyers are still buying, but they are pressing harder on implementation speed, consolidation, security and payback. That makes the pitch around workflow automation, adoption and time to value more important than broad promises about digital transformation. The selling motion has to show where monday.com replaces other tools, shortens rollout and gives managers a cleaner view of work.

monday.com’s own numbers show why that discipline matters. In the first quarter of 2026, the company reported revenue of $351.3 million, up 24% year over year, along with record GAAP and non-GAAP operating income. Net dollar retention was 110% overall, 114% for customers with more than 10 users, 116% for customers with more than $50,000 in annual recurring revenue and 115% for customers with more than $100,000 in ARR. The company said it had 65,016 paid customers with more than 10 users as of March 31, 2026.

The product side is moving in the same direction. On May 6, monday.com said it was relaunching as an AI work platform with native AI agents that can organize projects, update workflows, trigger automations, generate reports and coordinate work alongside humans. monday.com says more than 250,000 customers worldwide use the platform, and its 2025 annual report filing showed 4,281 enterprise customers generating more than $50,000 in ARR as of December 31, 2025.

That leaves monday.com with a clear test in the months ahead: sell AI as a way to remove friction, not add another layer of software buyers have to justify. IBM’s latest numbers suggest the budget conversation is still centered on proof, not enthusiasm, and that puts pressure on every sales pitch, every product release and every promise of efficiency.