The analysis, written by strategic adviser Itay Sagie, argues that the most durable advantage in AI is shifting from model quality to the customer workflows where AI performs real work. It points to Schneider Electric's $22.6 billion agreement to acquire PTC, which embeds AI in product design and manufacturing software, and to the Synopsys–OpenAI partnership, which combines frontier AI with established chip-design tools. In both cases, the value lies in owning the environment where AI gets used, not in the model itself.
Recurring usage is another pillar of the argument. ElevenLabs reports that its agents handle more than 15 million conversations weekly, spanning refunds, insurance renewals, and healthcare bookings, and it recently announced an employee tender at a $22 billion valuation. Once a product connects to internal systems, follows permissions, and handles exceptions, replacing it becomes costly and risky. The source advises investors to measure how much recurring work actually flows through a platform and what switching would truly require.
Acquisitions offer a faster route into these workflows. ServiceNow's purchase of Moveworks, which had 5.5 million employee users and roughly 250 customers using both companies' technologies, aims to connect employee requests directly to the systems that resolve them. The source suggests that as AI capabilities improve, buying a position inside daily operations could become a powerful path to durable growth. Since this is a single opinion piece, it presents no conflicting views, but it does frame the trend as one that founders, investors, and boards should treat as a strategic priority.