Enterprise Software's Next Frontier: From Records to Autonomous Agents

Enterprise software is undergoing a revolutionary shift: static data records are evolving into autonomous agents. The article explores three eras of enterprise software: the database era, the cloud era, and the upcoming autonomous agent era. In this third era, leveraging actor models, durable execution, state machines, and LLMs, business objects like invoices gain the ability to autonomously handle processes such as automatic approval, information gathering, policy interpretation, and cross-system coordination. This isn't simply AI replacing humans; it's giving life to data objects themselves, reshaping business processes, enabling more granular operations, and providing more powerful analytical capabilities. Companies are already experimenting with this model, such as CoPlane, Koala, and Hightouch, transforming static data into goal-oriented entities for more efficient workflows.