We are witnessing a shift where the value of software is no longer in the application itself, but in the agent that sits in front of it. If you control the agent, you control the context, the data, and the ultimate decision-making flow. This is the next evolution of aggregation, where the interface is not a screen, but a reasoning engine that mediates between the user and a fragmented ecosystem of tools.
This matters now because models are becoming increasingly commoditized. When every competitor has access to similar reasoning capabilities, the moat shifts from the model to the user relationship. The agent that knows your preferences, your files, and your history becomes the default gateway. If your product is not the one being called by the agent, you are effectively invisible to the user, regardless of how robust your backend functionality might be.
Industry case01
The Travel Booking Bottleneck
Travel and Hospitality · CPO
A major travel platform realized that users were increasingly bypassing their app to ask general-purpose AI agents for itinerary planning. The platform's proprietary booking engine was being treated as a mere commodity backend, losing the direct customer relationship and the ability to cross-sell ancillary services.
Takeaway: Move toward integrating your API directly into the agent's toolset to ensure your inventory remains the primary choice for the AI.
Executive perspective02
The CMO's New Reality
Retail · CMO
As a CMO, I used to worry about search engine rankings and social media reach. Now, I worry about whether the leading AI agents recommend our brand when a user asks for a product recommendation. If the agent doesn't have our brand in its context window, our marketing spend is effectively wasted.
Takeaway: Prioritize brand presence within the training data and tool-calling parameters of the most popular AI agents.
Before and after03
From Standalone App to Agent Plugin
Fintech · PMO
A personal finance startup spent years building a beautiful, standalone dashboard for expense tracking. They realized that users preferred asking their voice-activated AI assistant to check their balance rather than opening the app. They pivoted their entire roadmap to build a robust agent-compatible plugin, shifting from a destination app to a functional service layer.
Takeaway: Build for the agent ecosystem first, treating your standalone interface as a secondary fallback.
Cautionary tale04
The Invisible Utility Trap
Enterprise Software · CAiO
An enterprise software firm focused exclusively on improving their internal model performance while ignoring the agentic interface layer. A competitor built a lightweight agent wrapper that integrated with the firm's own API, effectively capturing the user experience and charging a premium for the convenience of the interface.
Takeaway: Own the interface layer, or prepare to be relegated to a low-margin utility provider.
