Enterprise AI: what comes after marketing software?

Andy Wood
August 2025
Renegade Agency

For the past 25 years, enterprise technology has been about building. Big systems. Long timelines. Teams of specialists to design, develop, integrate, and maintain complex digital platforms.

But will the future of enterprise tech be built in the same way?

The tech of the future is self-serving.

AI is the first technology in history that can tell you how to use itself. It learns from you and from itself, and it gets better, exponentially.

Eric Schmidt predicts AI models will dominate every field within five years, including AI development itself. When the tech can develop, configure, and optimise itself, where does that leave your current stack?

What happens to the software you’ve already bought?

Enterprise organizations have spent billions on tech platforms over the past two decades. From CRMs and CMSs to middleware, martech stacks, and more.

But as AI-enabled systems become self-configuring, able to set themselves up based on prompts, signals, or goals, the idea of enterprise software as a “product” starts to dissolve. Todays software is being replaced by self-configuring systems, guided by humans offering strategic oversight, rather than cutting lines of code.

But my bet is that specialists won’t disappear. We will need fewer coders, but more people with deep domain specialisms, who understand your business, audience, and data, as well as how to guide AI to build what you need, fast.

The AI-first CMS is already emerging.

Let’s take content management. The CMS has always promised self-service. But in practice, most marketing teams still lean heavily on agencies and developers.

Now, for the first time, AI-enabled CMS platforms are looking to change that.

Built-in AI assistants already support:

Content creation and QA
Metadata and SEO optimisation
Automated internal linking
Intelligent content structuring
Workflow augmentation

The next step? AI-enabled CMS systems that configure your digital ecosystem without the need for traditional build projects, wireframes, or UX design cycles.

Imagine spinning up a new digital experience in days, not months. That’s not a fantasy, it’s on the roadmap for AI-first CMS vendors.

Do you still need a web agency?

This certainly challenges the traditional website design and build agency model. If software sets itself up, guiding business teams through a self serve process, what is the role of a digital partner?

Here’s the thing: most teams are way too stretched to properly explore new tech on their own. The dream of true “self-service” has never materialised because real-world teams wear too many hats.

But agencies do need to adapt. The ones that survive won’t be those clinging to outdated build processes. They’ll be the ones who:

Bring deep domain expertise in your industry
Understand how to configure AI-first tools quickly and effectively
Work in nimble, cross-functional teams
Collaborate directly with client and AI-first tech teams
Help you manage configuration and interpret outputs in context

Lean, smart, strategic execution partners. That’s what the new model demands.

Tech is a commodity. Execution is the differentiator.

The AI arms race is already changing enterprise tech. When everyone’s using the same AI models and APIs, how do features remain a differentiator?

The new technology winners will be those who can drive integration and execution into their clients business most quickly and effectively.

OpenAI understands this, and now offers AI consulting services to clients spending $10M+. They’re not offering access to any special or secret AI models. They’re doing it because they understand that integrating new tech into old businesses is the really hard part.

Without significant and specialist enablement help, most businesses will fail to take full advantage of the power of any new AI enabled tech. And low, slow or uninspiring adoption means lost opportunity, slower revenues and low stickiness for tech vendors.

The smartest tech in the world means nothing without effective business transformation.

In this new landscape, “Execution-as-a-Service” is crucial. No matter how powerful the tech, organizations will still need help figuring out what to do with it. Enablement service teams will help clients manage transformation and change, using their deep domain expertise, technical skill with AI tools, and a big slice of imagination.

Reimagining digital transformation for the AI era.

The enterprise technologies of the future won’t be software in the traditional sense. Enterprise level CMS vendors for example, already offer native AI features that are flexible, trainable and can reshape depending on your use. Powerful, bespoke configuration tailored for your business.

But with great flexibility comes great confusion.

That’s why onboarding, enablement, and scale-up support services are essential. We’re not talking the 18-month re-platforming programs of the past. These new enterprise AI services are agile, hands-on, iterative experiences designed to:

Reimagine workflows, business models and customer experiences
Test what’s possible, evolving within the constraints of your organization
Build trust and confidence in AI systems with internal teams
Deliver early wins that energise the whole business
Develop repeatable workflows you can scale

It’s transformation-as-a-practice with enterprise AI, and smart companies are already investing in this type of AI proof-of-value project.

So what does the future of enterprise tech look like?

Let’s break it down:

Tech is being commoditised by AI’s ability to level the playing field
Software is shifting from pre-built systems to AI-enabled tools that self-configure
The human role evolves from building tech to guiding systems, configuring workflows, and managing outcomes
The agency model transforms from delivery partner to embedded enablement team
Execution becomes the differentiator, because it’s not just what tech you buy, but how well you use it
Transformation becomes a central service, because what the tech is capable of is less important than what you can imagine, learn and build in collaboration with it

The new shape of enterprise software is not something you buy and build, it’s something you co-create, together with AI.

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Where do you see the role of the enterprise software stack in the coming years?

Andy Wood, Strategy Partner

20+ years bringing together business strategy, market insight, and technology to deliver business transformation, customer experience innovation and operational efficiency.

I can help you:

• Deliver next-generation digital experiences for customers

• Align enterprise technologies with operational & strategic goals

• Understand AI across business operations & customer experience