2023 has been a solid year for investors. Through late December, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index returned 45% while the S 500 returned 25%. One of the prominent investment themes of 2023 was artificial intelligence (AI), with much of the hype captured by the Magnificent Seven stocks.

While these shares performed well during 2023, it would behoove investors to think beyond this cohort as it relates to investing in AI. Cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) business Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) has posted a respectable operating performance so far this year. In fact, after a 100% return, Salesforce is the top-performing Dow Jones Industrial Average stock of 2023 at the time of this writing -- and I think it's headed even higher.

Let's dig into what helped propel such a massive move in Salesforce stock this year, and why 2024 could be the start of a new growth story for the enterprise software leader.

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Source Fool.com