For vendors seeking to escape the AI commoditization plateau, here’s the tactical playbook for achieving embedding.
1. Build the Integration Layer First
APIs, webhooks, and middleware aren’t features — they’re the product. Stripe’s payment processing isn’t magical; Stripe’s API developer experience is.
2. Pursue “Boring” Data Categories
The boring ones embed deepest: Customer identity, Employee identity, Financial data, Product data. The more foundational, the more embeddable.
3. Make Exports Easy but Imports Essential
Lower barriers to getting data OUT to reduce fear of lock-in. But make imports so comprehensive that you become where data lives, not visits.
4. Target Cross-Functional Use Cases
Systems used by one department are tools. Systems used by three departments are infrastructure. Sales + Marketing = tool. Sales + Marketing + Finance + Operations = infrastructure.
5. Become the Meeting Artifact
Put yourself on screen in every cross-functional meeting. When executives say “pull up the Salesforce report,” Salesforce wins regardless of whether anyone explicitly chose it.
The Playbook Principle:
Vendors: Build toward infrastructure status. Organizations: Know what you’re already embedded in — then negotiate from reality.
This is part of a comprehensive analysis. Read the full analysis on The Business Engineer.
