In November 2024 Satya Nadella said that in the era of AI agents, business applications would collapse — because a SaaS product is, in the end, an interface sitting on a database, and an agent does not need the interface. This study was written to test that claim rather than repeat it. Its answer is that “collapse” is the wrong word, but that the value is moving, and moving fast: the front end is being transformed rather than destroyed, and the companies that hold the data and can distribute a new interface start the race in front. Salesforce is one of them. That does not make it safe — and the risk that matters is not a competitor, it is a customer whose automation succeeds and who therefore needs fewer seats.
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