The Embedding Inevitability: What Required 6 Engineers in 2020 Takes 1 Developer and 1 Weekend in 2025

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: embedding isn’t optional for enterprise software survival.

The Uncomfortable Truth:

The AI plateau continues rising. What required 6 engineers and 6 months in 2020 requires 1 developer and 1 weekend in 2025.

Feature differentiation has a half-life measured in months, sometimes weeks.

The Only Durable Moat:

• Structural — Integration architecture
• Data — Gravity wells
• Workflow — Checkpoints & gates
• Identity — Ontology layers

The Binary Choice:

• Don’t Embed: Commoditized by vibe coding. Race to the bottom.
• Embed: Capture coordination value. Build irreversibility.

The Inevitability:

The middle ground — “good enough” products with “reasonable” switching costs — is being evacuated. The SaaS landscape is bifurcating.

Companies that don’t embed will be commoditized by vibe coding.

Companies that do embed will capture the value that flows through organizational coordination.

Choose a side.

This is part of a comprehensive analysis. Read the full analysis on The Business Engineer.