gave Claude my essays and recent writing and asked it to create a narrative and plan for winning the next generation of enterprise apps

honestly, pretty solid for a one-shot attempt

The Gravitational Pull Strategy: How to Win the Next Generation of Software Apps

The Core Thesis: Data Gravity Is Everything

Winning in the next generation of software isn't about building better UIs or features—it's about creating a core data asset whose gravitational pull is so strong that it subjugates all downstream and upstream workflows. The winners will be those who understand that ownership of critical business objects equals ownership of enterprise value.

The Three-Act Evolution

Act I: From Application to Platform (The Foundation)

Every successful software company follows a predictable path:

Build an app that solves a specific problem with an opinionated data model
Extend to platform by opening APIs and allowing customization
Create extensibility layers to protect and expand the core

This isn't new—Salesforce mastered this with Force.com, AppExchange, and Lightning Apps. But what's changing is the speed and nature of the extensibility layer.

Act II: The AI-Powered Acceleration (The Present)

We're witnessing a fundamental shift in how extensibility manifests. Tools like Lovable, ChatGPT, and other AI app builders are the modern equivalent of yesterday's low/no-code platforms—but with a critical difference: they can understand and extrapolate the nouns and verbs of your business. The winning strategy here is clear:

Every major software company will release an AI app builder on top of their platform data model
These builders will be deeply integrated with internal platform APIs
The depth of business value comes from context—the more your data model permeates the organization, the more valuable your AI builder becomes

This is why Salesforce is betting everything on Agentforce, why ServiceNow is making aggressive CRM plays, and why Microsoft declared "SaaS is dead." They understand that the application layer is collapsing into a data source, and the new value creation happens at the agent layer.

Act III: The Agent-Data Flywheel (The Future)

The next generation isn't about applications at all—it's about: Data Platforms as the Foundation

Structured data becomes just one input among many
Unstructured data (emails, calls, documents) becomes actionable through AI
The richness and texture previously lost in human-to-system translation is preserved

Agents as the New Work Abstraction

Agents don't just assist humans—they autonomously execute workflows
Work scales infinitely at zero marginal cost
The shift from "agent in the loop" to "human in the loop"

Dynamic Interfaces Generated on Demand

UIs become ephemeral, created by AI when human intervention is needed
The permanent layer is the data and the agent memory
Applications become thin shells over intelligent data layers

The Winning Playbook

Step 1: Establish Data Dominance

Own the critical business objects (customers, employees, transactions, workflows)
Make your data model the lingua franca of the business domain
Create switching costs through data gravity—if it's not in your system, it didn't happen

Step 2: Export Your Data Model Everywhere

Acquire or build middleware to make integration frictionless
Ensure every other system speaks your language through APIs and connectors
Make the path of least resistance lead to your platform

Step 3: Enable Infinite Extensibility

Launch an AI-powered app builder that understands your data model
Let customers and partners build on your platform without code
Turn every user into a potential developer through natural language interfaces

Step 4: Collapse the Stack

Position your platform as the data layer that feeds all agents
Build or acquire agent capabilities that act on your data
Create recursive loops where agents generate data that makes agents smarter

Step 5: Control the Orchestration Layer

Move from prescriptive workflows to intelligent orchestration
Let the system identify and pursue opportunities autonomously
Maintain human oversight but automate execution

The Defensive Moat

The beauty of this strategy is its compounding defensibility:

Data begets more data through agent interactions
Context accumulates making your agents smarter than competitors
Network effects accelerate as more workflows connect to your platform
Switching costs become insurmountable as agent memory and context deepen

The Existential Risk

The threat isn't from better applications—it's from platforms that can:

Start fresh with an agent-first architecture (no legacy UI burden)
Aggregate unstructured data more effectively than you can
Build direct relationships with users through superior agent experiences
Bypass your data model entirely by creating new paradigms for work

The Ultimate Endgame

The winner of the next generation won't be an application company or even a platform company—it will be an intelligence company that:

Owns the data that matters
Controls the agents that act on it
Orchestrates the workflows that create value
Generates the interfaces that humans need, when they need them

This is why every SaaS giant is dancing to the same tune. They've heard the music—AI is collapsing their application layers into mere data sources. The only question is whether they can transform fast enough to own the new layer of value creation above it.

The Counter-Intuitive Truth

The companies best positioned to win aren't necessarily today's giants—they're the ones who understand that:

UI is temporary, data is permanent
Agents are cheaper than humans but create more value
Unstructured data is more valuable than structured data
Orchestration beats prescription
Context is the new moat

The next Salesforce won't look like Salesforce. It will be born agent-first, built on unstructured data, and its "application" will be whatever its AI decides you need to see in the moment. The gravitational pull won't come from locking in your CRM data—it will come from being so deeply embedded in every workflow that extracting it would be like removing your nervous system.

The Practical Path Forward

For established companies:

Launch your AI app builder yesterday—this is table stakes
Acquire data and middleware companies aggressively—you need the pipes
Rebuild your architecture for agents—not just as tools but as first-class actors
Treat unstructured data as a strategic asset—not exhaust
Prepare for UI obsolescence—invest in data and intelligence layers

For new entrants:

Start agent-native—don't build UI, build intelligence
Target workflow gaps—where data is lost between systems
Create new business objects—that only make sense in an AI world
Build recursive data loops—where usage makes the product smarter
Focus on orchestration—not prescription

The Final Word

The next generation of software isn't about software at all—it's about intelligence acting on data to create value. The winners will be those who recognize that the interface is dying, the application is collapsing, but the data and the intelligence that acts on it are eternal. Build for that world, and you'll build something whose gravitational pull is truly inescapable.