The AI "super agent" battle has begun! The four major tracks are fully deployed, with OpenAI and Anthropic challenging the software empires of Microsoft and others

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

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

This competition involves four major categories of products: browser-based agents, operable computer agents, agent-building tools, and agent management consoles.

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

These moves have intensified the pressure on traditional enterprise software vendors. Market participants generally expect that in the future, white-collar workers will no longer manually use enterprise applications but will supervise a series of AI agents capable of autonomously connecting applications.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated as early as 2024 that traditional software applications will "collapse in the 'agent era'" because they are "essentially databases with business logic." Microsoft has even publicly discussed charging subscriptions to AI accessing its applications, just like charging human users.

Intense Competition in Four Product Categories

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

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

Operable computer agents include Anthropic's Cowork, Google's Gemini Computer Use, and ServiceNow's desktop agents, which can use desktop applications and files to generate financial reports.

In the area 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 the agent management console space include Microsoft's Agent 365 and OpenAI's Frontier, which are also referred to as agent operation platforms.

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

The rise of the open-source computer operation agent OpenClaw among software engineers, along with Anthropic's Cowork, has already caught the attention of top tech executives like Nadella.

Security and Adoption Barriers Remain

Despite the promising outlook, these new agents still face significant challenges before widespread adoption The use of browser and computer operation proxies carries significant security responsibilities, potentially unintentionally leaking user credentials or allowing remote attackers to control PCs. According to The Information, some AI buyers have stated that these products are too difficult to use.

Different companies express varying degrees of readiness regarding proxies.

OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google indicate that their computer operation proxies are only available in research preview, suggesting they are not yet ready for large-scale enterprise adoption. However, vendors like ServiceNow, which rely on OpenAI and Anthropic models, claim their computer operation proxies are fully launched.

Onkar Birk, Chief Technology Officer of Hilton, stated that despite the abundance of AI proxy products in the market, he is not in a hurry to sign new subscriptions. The company currently uses a suite of AI products from vendors such as OpenAI, Microsoft, Salesforce, and Oracle to operate automated internal proxies.

Birk noted that the company spent nearly three years developing its customer support proxy before rolling it out to clients, saying, "This is not a simple architectural investment."

The "Record System" Dispute

A chart presented by OpenAI in a blog post shows that its proxy command technology will sit above the enterprise "record systems." This refers to applications made by companies like Microsoft and Salesforce that store critical enterprise data.

According to The Information, some executives from traditional enterprise application companies view this as OpenAI attempting to showcase its significant influence over how enterprises use and pay for software and AI.

Currently, traditional enterprise application companies like Salesforce or Microsoft do not seem prepared to directly prevent these new AI proxies from using, accessing, or modifying data in major applications like Salesforce's customer relationship management software or Microsoft Office 365.

Nadella stated in a 2024 podcast that Microsoft cannot prevent AI proxies from accessing applications on company Windows devices. However, some executives in the AI field believe that enterprise application companies may attempt to limit the frequency of AI access to applications or the data they store.

A similar situation occurred last spring when Salesforce's Slack prohibited 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 proxies, while these AI companies are trying to persuade employees to use their own competing tools.

Last fall, database company Snowflake released a product powered by models from these AI companies, helping customers develop proxies capable of searching and retrieving sales or other business metric data.

Snowflake CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy stated at the time that as AI breaks down traditional barriers and spurs new competition, software company leaders feel "they either reach a $1 trillion valuation or go to zero." This statement highlights the high-risk nature of this competition