The New Kings Don't Build Everything

In previous technological revolutions, winning companies built the technology. In AI, winning companies orchestrate technology built by others. A great example of this is how, during the railroad boom of the 1800s, companies competed by building more rail track.

For the AI boom, as much as we think that building the best model is the main way to compete, the reality is that some of the biggest winners may be the companies that simply connect breakthroughs to customers.

Look at the AI landscape. OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, and Meta are all building their own AI models. Nvidia, AMD, Intel, Broadcom, and Cerebras provide the chips that power those models.

But for Adobe, they don’t make chips and AI models. Even if most of the value from the AI buildout today goes towards chips and AI model builders, I believe Adobe is positioned to capture immense value simply because it sits where work gets done.

Every technological revolution creates two groups of companies:

1. The Builders, who create the breakthroughs

2. The Orchestrators, who figure out how to make the breakthrough useful.

Adobe is betting that AI will follow the same pattern.

From this interview, Sahil Gupta, Senior Director of Partnerships at Adobe, notes that Adobe isn’t trying to beat Google or OpenAI or any other AI startup. Instead, it partners with all of them.

This move of partnering with all AI firms sounds defensive, but I believe it’s one of the smartest decisions to make in the AI era. The reason is simple: most businesses don’t wake up wondering which LLM to use; instead, they only care about getting the work done.

The model is one piece of the workflow of creating content, and what matters more is how they craft the output so that they can create engaging content that will enhance the performance of their marketing campaigns.

As AI improves, Adobe doesn't necessarily need to invent every breakthrough itself. It simply needs to make sure those breakthroughs show up where work is already happening. This is where the partnership strategy becomes so powerful.

Every time OpenAI improves ChatGPT, Adobe can integrate those capabilities.

Every time Anthropic advances Claude, Adobe can integrate those capabilities.

Every time Google releases a stronger model, Adobe can integrate those capabilities.

The company benefits from innovation occurring across the entire AI ecosystem.

In a sense, Adobe is outsourcing the most expensive part of the AI race. While others spend tens of billions of dollars training models, Adobe focuses on embedding those models into the workflows enterprises already depend on. That changes the economics entirely.

The future may belong not to the companies building the smartest AI, but to the companies that become the place where AI gets used.

The builders are creating engines. Adobe is building the transportation network. And throughout history, transportation networks have often become more valuable than the vehicles moving across them.

The lessons learned here can apply to the rest of the software industry. Amid SaaSpocaylpse, where investors fear that firms can save money by simply vibe coding their own software replicas, as much as these concerns are valid, these concerns cause investors to miss the forest for the trees.

The companies most at risk of disruption from AI are those whose value comes from a single feature. The companies most likely to thrive are those that own entire workflows. After all, businesses don't buy software because they want features; they buy software because they want outcomes.

A salesperson doesn’t want CRM; they want to close deals. A designer doesn't want editing tools; they want to create better campaigns. AI helps accomplish those deals faster. That means the software platform that coordinates the work can become even more valuable.

Consider what happens when AI agents become reliable digital coworkers. Someone still needs to provide:

• Customer data

• Permissions

• Compliance controls

• Workflow orchestration

• Team collaboration

• Performance measurement

• Governance

These aren't model problems. They're workflow problems. And workflow problems are where SaaS companies live.

This is why the future may not belong to the companies with the smartest AI model. Instead, it may belong to the companies that become the operating systems for digital work.

Salesforce is trying to become the operating system for sales agents.

ServiceNow is trying to become the operating system for enterprise workflows.

HubSpot is trying to become the operating system for small business growth.

Adobe is trying to become the operating system for marketing and creativity.

In each case, AI makes the platform more useful.

The software is no longer just a tool. It becomes a manager of digital labor. The AI revolution may increase the value of great SaaS companies rather than diminish it.

The best SaaS businesses already possess the hardest assets to build:

• Customer relationships.

• Workflow integration.

• Distribution.

• Trust.

• Data.

AI can be replicated. Those assets cannot.

Just as electricity increased the value of factories, AI may increase the value of software platforms that already sit at the center of business operations.

The winners won't simply sell software. They'll sell outcomes. And in many cases, they'll sell digital labor itself.

Disclosure

About Me

I am an independent personal finance writer and blogger. I do not have any formal training or certifications in finance, but I have a deep passion for the subject and have been researching and writing about personal finance topics for several years.

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