AI "super agent" battle kicks off! Four major tracks fully unfold, OpenAI and Anthropic are challenging the software empires of Microsoft and others.

AI giants and traditional enterprise software vendors are engaged in comprehensive competition in the field of AI agent tools.

On February 12, according to The Information, enterprise-level AI products launched by OpenAI and Anthropic are disrupting the current enterprise software market, while traditional vendors such as Microsoft, Salesforce, and ServiceNow are accelerating the rollout of agent-building tools and management platforms to meet the challenge.

This competition involves four categories of products: browser-based agents, agents capable of operating computers, agent-building tools, and agent management consoles.

This Tuesday, Anthropic released a research preview of Cowork for Windows users, and last week OpenAI launched the Frontier platform to help companies like Uber and Thermo Fisher Scientific create multiple AI collaborators and assign different tasks.

These moves are increasing pressure on traditional enterprise software vendors. Market participants widely expect that in the future, white-collar employees will no longer manually use enterprise applications but will instead supervise a series of AI agents that can autonomously connect applications.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella remarked as early as 2024 that traditional software applications will "collapse in the agent era," as they are "essentially databases with business logic." Microsoft has even publicly discussed charging subscription fees to AIs accessing its applications, just as it does for human users.

Four Product Types in Fierce Competition

According to statistics from The Information, major tech companies are competing in four key areas.

Browser-based agents are provided by OpenAI, Google, and others, capable of performing multi-step tasks such as logging into supplier websites and placing orders.

Agents capable of operating computers include Anthropic's Cowork, Google's Gemini Computer Use, and ServiceNow's desktop agent, which can use desktop applications and files to generate financial reports.

In terms of agent-building tools, products like Salesforce's Agentforce and Google's Gemini Enterprise allow customers to create agents that can access various enterprise applications.

Competitors in agent management consoles include Microsoft's Agent 365 and OpenAI's Frontier. These products are also referred to as agent operations platforms.

This raises a key question: how many agent management consoles does the market need? Each customer may only need one, which means this could be a winner-takes-all competition.

The popularity of the open-source computer-operating agent OpenClaw among software engineers, as well as Anthropic's Cowork, has caught the attention of top tech executives such as Nadella.

Security and Adoption Barriers Remain

Despite the vast prospects, these new agents still face significant challenges before widespread adoption.

Browser-based and computer-operating agents have substantial security liabilities, as they may inadvertently leak user credentials or allow remote attackers to control PCs. According to The Information, some AI buyers report that these products are too difficult to use.

Different companies have varying statements about agent readiness.

OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google claim that their computer-operating agents are offered only as research previews, implying they're not ready for large enterprise adoption yet. However, vendors like ServiceNow, which depend on OpenAI and Anthropic models, claim their computer-operating agents are fully market-ready.

Hilton's Chief Technology Officer Onkar Birk stated that although there are abundant AI agent products in the market, he is not in a rush to sign new subscriptions. The company currently uses a suite of AI products from OpenAI, Microsoft, Salesforce, Oracle, and others to run internally automated agents.

Birk pointed out that the company spent nearly three years developing a customer support agent before launching it to customers, "This is not a simple architectural investment."

The "System of Record" Battle

OpenAI's blog post chart shows that its agent command technology will sit atop the enterprise "system of record." This refers to applications from companies like Microsoft and Salesforce that store critical enterprise data.

According to The Information, executives at some traditional enterprise application companies view this as OpenAI attempting to demonstrate its substantial influence over how companies use and pay for software and AI.

Currently, traditional enterprise application companies such as Salesforce or Microsoft do not appear ready to directly block these new AI agents from using, accessing, or modifying data within major applications like Salesforce CRM software or Microsoft Office 365.

Nadella said in a 2024 podcast that Microsoft cannot prevent AI agents from accessing applications on company Windows devices. However, some AI industry executives believe enterprise application companies may attempt to limit how frequently AI can access applications or their stored data.

A similar situation occurred last spring when Salesforce's Slack barred other AI and software companies from searching or storing Slack messages, even if customers allowed it.

Ironically, many traditional enterprise companies have been using technology purchased from OpenAI and Anthropic to support their own agents, while these AI companies are trying to persuade employees to use their own competing tools.

Last fall, database company Snowflake launched a product powered by these AI company models to help customers develop agents that can search and retrieve sales or other enterprise metrics data.

Snowflake CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy said at the time that since AI is breaking traditional barriers and triggering new competition, software company leaders feel it's "either reach a trillion-dollar valuation or go to zero." This highlights the high-risk nature of the competition.

Risk Disclosure and DisclaimerThe market contains risks, and investment should be made cautiously. This article does not constitute individual investment advice, nor does it consider the specific investment goals, financial situation or needs of any particular user. Users should consider whether any opinions, viewpoints or conclusions in this article are suitable for their particular circumstances. Any investment based on this article is at your own risk.