Analysts Say This 1 Unexpected Stock to Buy Could Be a Major AI Winner

The AI-based tech selloff has been brutal and broad. But according to one major Wall Street firm, the market is punishing the wrong companies.

Amid the carnage, Evercore ISI analysts told investors in a note that the recent decline in AI-exposed stocks has been "indiscriminate." The firm described a "sell first, ask questions later" mindset that has dragged down shares regardless of underlying business quality.

That creates an opening if you know where to look. And one of the names on Evercore ISI's shortlist may surprise you.

Waystar Stock Is Flying Under the Radar 

When most investors think of artificial intelligence winners, they picture chipmakers, cloud giants, or data platforms. Healthcare software companies don't usually top the list.

But Evercore ISI named Waystar Holding (WAY) as one of just eight stocks best positioned to benefit from accelerating AI adoption. The investment firm said Waystar "benefits from AI via automation of revenue cycle management, including claim scrubbing, denial prediction, and workflow optimization."

In plain terms, Waystar builds software that helps hospitals and doctors' offices get paid faster and more accurately. It sits in the middle of one of the most complex and expensive processes in American healthcare, the billing and payment system, and uses AI to fix it.

The Lehi, Utah-based company was founded in 2017 and now processes more than seven billion healthcare transactions annually. It connects more than one million providers to every major insurance payer in the country.

That's not a small operation. And it's increasingly an AI-powered one.

Waystar's AI Is Already Delivering Real Results

What makes Waystar stand out isn't just that it talks about artificial intelligence. It's that the AI is already working, and the numbers back it up.

In 2025, Waystar's AltitudeAI platform prevented more than $15 billion in insurance claim denials for its clients. The system also cut the time needed to build a denial appeal by 90%, turning a process that once took days into one that takes minutes.

Roughly 50% of Waystar's solutions now incorporate AI. Close to 40% of its revenue comes from workflows that directly embed AI. And in fiscal year 2025, approximately 30% of new bookings came specifically from AI-powered products.

"Clients trust Waystar to deliver AI that goes beyond assistance to enable agentic outcome-driven revenue cycle automation," Chief Executive Officer Matt Hawkins said on the company's fourth-quarter earnings call Feb. 17.

The financial results tell a similar story. Full-year 2025 revenue crossed $1 billion for the first time, growing 17% year-over-year (YoY). Fourth-quarter revenue came in at $304 million, up 24% YoY. Adjusted EBITDA margin hit 42.5% for the quarter, above the company's own long-term target of 40%.

Win rates against competitors improved beyond the company's already-strong historical average of more than 80%. And Waystar's net revenue retention rate was 112%, meaning existing clients are spending significantly more over time. 

Why the AI Momentum Favors Waystar

Waystar processes data from roughly one in three U.S. hospital discharges each year. That proprietary data, combined with more than a decade of deployment history and over 100,000 live integrations, creates a learning advantage that newer competitors simply can't replicate overnight.

Analysts tracking WAY stock forecast revenue to increase from $1.1 billion in 2025 to $1.85 billion in 2030. In this period, free cash flow is forecast to improve from $283 million to $538 million. 

If the AI stock is priced at 20x forward FCF, which is below its one-year average of 25x, it should more than double over the next three years. 

Out of the 24 analysts covering WAY stock, 21 recommend “Strong Buy,” two recommend “Moderate Buy,” and one recommends “Hold.” The average Waystar stock price target is $37.50, above the current price of $26. 

Evercore ISI made a broader point that companies building "orchestration, secure enterprise guardrails, and agentic execution across siloed data are set to outperform" in what the firm calls the current "critical acceleration phase" of AI adoption.

Waystar checks each of those boxes in a sector, healthcare, where accuracy isn't optional, and errors carry financial and regulatory consequences. For investors willing to look beyond the obvious AI plays, that combination may be worth a closer look.