The Rumors of Enterprise Software's Death Are Greatly Exaggerated
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Every few years, some business pundits declare that something fundamental to business is obsolete. Over the past few weeks, enterprise software has become the latest target. AI agents and prompt-driven tools will supposedly replace the systems that have anchored organizations for decades.
This Super Bowl LX commercial unintentionally shows why enterprise software will survive these predictions. We watch Nina build a budgeting app with a few prompts. The demo looks impressive, but ask yourself: who approves that budget? How do funds get released once approved? What about budget vs. actuals?"
The inventory tracker built by her colleague looks impressive until you think about how inventory actually moves through the system. How does it connect to purchasing, accounts payable, and cash receipts?
The commercial's humor comes as we watch people build increasingly absurd apps. Two people build the same app. Someone else creates an app to track who still owes for lunch. One guy builds an app to track office trash pickup schedules. Another person builds an intra-office dating app (and quickly backtracks when he realizes how creepy it sounds). We laugh because we can imagine this kind of chaos."
All of these scenarios, the reasonable and the silly, raise important questions. Where does the data come from? Who verifies its accuracy? Who needs to use the results? Who tests whether the app actually works? Where is sensitive information being stored? Who decides whether building these apps is worth the time and resources it takes?
These are not technical questions. They're process and governance questions, and they reveal the core misunderstanding in the 'death of enterprise software' narrative.
When properly implemented, enterprise applications address many of these concerns. They provide consistent process execution across an organization. They maintain accuracy across entire workflows. They integrate functions so that finance, operations, and sales operate from the same reality.
We've been here before. In the 1960s and 1970s, common predictions declared mainframes dead. Companies like IBM still sell them. COBOL would disappear any day now. Forty years later, COBOL still runs critical systems across banking, government, and insurance. The predictions were not entirely wrong.
They failed to realize that new technology rarely erases the old. It reshapes how it is used.
AI agents will change enterprise software, not kill it. They are changing how these systems work today. They are automating workflows within these systems, providing better interfaces, and creating custom extensions that would have required developer teams in the past. Smart enterprise software vendors will embrace this shift while less adaptable ones struggle. That's market evolution, not extinction.
Bandwagons roll fast, and can lead to the wrong place. Know where you must go.
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Chips And Salsa: Bite-Sized News and Posts
Today's newsletter references a Super Bowl LX ad. Here are a few more of the ones I enjoyed.
How can I communicate better with my mom? | Anthropic
Billy Bass Goes To The River | Jeep
"Good Will Dunkin': The Pilot" | Dunkin'
This video asks us to decide which program is better – Apollo or Artemis. I think this is a false choice. Artemis would not exist without Apollo.
10 key differences between Apollo and Artemis moon programs | YouTube
The Olympics are here. Downhill skiing has become much more dangerous. Risks in many other sports have also increased.
There seem to be mixed signals everywhere.
Six-Chart Sunday – Running Hot & Cold | Bruce Mehlman's Age of Disruption
Metaphors are powerful. When we use them, we must remember they are imperfect. When we begin to take our metaphors literally, we create traps. This article addresses the idea that we can rewire our brains. We can change, but it is not as straightforward as the rewiring analogy would imply. The discussion on stuttering hits home. Growing up, I had a very bad stutter. When people hear me talk today, they will sometimes hear an awkward pause. This happens when I feel a stutter coming on, and I pause to find a different word.
Can you rewire your brain? | Aeon
Some automotive industry history.
A Century of Automobile Industry History in Charts | American History Business Center
SPRING TRAINING!!!!
Each team's top storyline entering Spring Training | MLB
Quotes
"Practice like you've never won. Play like you've never lost."
Michael Jordan
"When you win, nothing hurts."
Joe Namath
"Success isn't determined by how many times you win, but by how you play the week after you lose."
Pele
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