The Domain Thesis: Owning the workflow is more valuable than owning the model. Enterprise software incumbents possess deeply embedded positions in mission-critical processes, years of workflow data, and established trust relationships that AI-native startups cannot easily replicate.
Workflow lock-in + customer data gravity + trust infrastructure.
Salesforce: The Agentic Enterprise Pioneer
Salesforce executed a comprehensive pivot to position itself as the “Agentic Enterprise” platform.
Agentforce became the company’s “fastest growing product ever”
Agent growth reached 119% in the first half of 2025
AgentExchange launched as the world’s first agent marketplace for the “$6 trillion digital labor market”
Pricing starts at $2 per conversation
The Salesforce Moat: Deep customer data powers both employee and customer-facing agents. Twenty years of enterprise relationships provide trust infrastructure that AI-native startups must build from scratch.
ServiceNow: The AI Agent Control Tower
ServiceNow positions itself as the orchestration layer for enterprise AI agents.
AI Agent Orchestrator serves as the central location to analyze, manage, and govern agentic AI
AI Agent Studio enables building fully customized agents
“AI Agent Fabric” and “RaptorDB” for high-scale execution
The “Agent War”: Salesforce and ServiceNow are competing for the “Agentic Operating System”—the central layer of intelligence that will manage a company’s HR, finance, and customer service workflows.
SAP and Workday: The Vertical Specialists
SAP embeds AI across its massive ERP footprint through Joule AI agents spanning finance, supply chain, HR, and customer service.
Workday focuses on specialized HR and finance AI through Illuminate agents. The platform processes over 800 billion transactions annually—a dataset no startup can replicate.
Critical Highlight
The “agent war” is about who becomes the Agentic Operating System. Control the workflow and you tax value regardless of model provider.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
