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Why an AI agent could change who the software serves
Lamanna put the shift plainly: “If my agent interacts with your app exclusively, the agent’s your customer, not the end user,” he said at Madrona’s annual IA40 Summit, in conversation with Managing Director Matt McIlwain. “And agents are very harsh customers.” GeekWire’s report describes a scenario in which the user gives an agent a goal and the agent selects or operates the services needed to complete it.
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In that arrangement, a back-end service may have less opportunity to build loyalty through a user-facing interface. The agent could instead weigh factors such as price, speed and reliability, then use a different provider if it performs better. If the underlying services are easy to substitute, that may weaken providers’ ability to charge a premium. The report does not establish how often this is happening, or how much it affects prices today.
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What Lamanna means by “thick” and “thin” apps
Lamanna’s distinction is about how people use an application, not a measured ranking of particular vendors. “Thick” apps are places where someone spends a substantial part of the workweek. “Thin” apps are tools people enter briefly to complete a task and leave—software he suggested could often operate behind an assistant instead of being opened directly.
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| Type | How it is used | Examples in GeekWire’s report |
|---|---|---|
| Thick app | A primary work environment used for extended periods | CAD software, contact-center software, or Excel used by a full-time financial modeler |
| Thin app | A task-focused service that a person may use briefly, potentially through an agent | Lamanna described most business software as thin; the report does not name a scored or definitive list of thin apps |
The useful question is whether the work depends on being inside the app for a long time, or whether an agent can request the necessary function from the service in the background. Lamanna’s examples are illustrative; they do not prove that any specific product will become headless or lose its direct user interface.
Microsoft’s own apps could be part of the shift
Lamanna did not frame agent mediation as a threat limited to other companies. GeekWire reported that he expects Word, Excel and PowerPoint to remain, while many people may use them from within Copilot rather than moving among separate apps. He described a possible standard office setup as Copilot for AI and Teams for communication, “and that’s maybe it.” That is his forecast, not a confirmed product roadmap or a statement that the Office apps are going away.
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The report also says Copilot can use connectors to draw on services such as Salesforce and ServiceNow, so people can work without leaving the Copilot interface. This illustrates the difference between the interface a person sees and the services an agent may call behind it. It does not establish the technical details, availability or commercial terms of every connector.
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Lamanna compared a headless software provider to a business that sells only through Amazon. A seller can reach buyers there, but if shoppers see interchangeable options—his phrase was “your pencils or those pencils”—the seller may have less leverage over price. By contrast, he described a differentiated brand such as Nike as having more leverage. The point is not that software is identical to a physical product; it is that a provider may be easier to replace when customers encounter it only as one choice among alternatives.
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For software, differentiation could matter if an agent is selecting among services. A provider whose value depends on a distinctive capability, dependable performance or a strong reason to be chosen may be less interchangeable than one competing mainly on a basic function. Lamanna’s analogy explains his argument; it does not demonstrate that agents will always choose the cheapest option or that every back-end app will become a commodity.
Agent access also depends on platform decisions
GeekWire’s report offered examples involving shopping and seller tools, where access is controlled by the platform as well as by the agent provider:
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- Amazon and Meta’s Muse: GeekWire reported that Amazon blocked Meta’s Muse agent from shopping on its site. Amazon said Meta had not requested permission and that Muse did not identify itself and appeared to store customer credentials. Meta disputed the credentials concern, saying Muse could not see users’ passwords or payment methods.
- Amazon seller tools and Claude: The report said Amazon opened seller tools to Anthropic’s Claude, enabling merchants to manage inventory, prices and listings without entering Seller Central.
- Amazon and Perplexity’s Comet: GeekWire also mentioned a legal dispute between Amazon and Perplexity over Comet.
These reported cases show that a platform can set conditions for whether agents access its marketplace or tools. They do not establish a uniform policy across platforms, or settle the disputed details of the Muse case.
What the warning does—and does not—tell software companies
Lamanna’s argument points to a possible change in how some business software earns and defends revenue: if users rely on an agent as their main interface, a service may need to justify its place to that agent through measurable usefulness rather than direct user habit alone. But the report provides no market-wide adoption, pricing or performance data, and no quantified threshold for when an app counts as thick or thin. It is best read as a strategic forecast from a Microsoft executive, illustrated with examples—not as proof that most software companies are already losing pricing power.
Quick Recap
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- Brilliant Display – Stunning 13.8" PixelSense touchscreen[1], with brilliant LCD display[2], unleashes luminous whites, deeper blacks and colors so richly saturated bringing vivid life into every frame – perfect for work, school, streaming and creative tasks.
- Power that lasts all day – With 20 hours of battery life[3], the new Surface Laptop powers through your entire day, so you can create, work and stream from morning to night without reaching for a charger.
- Work at the speed of your ideas – Built with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite (12 Core) processors, Surface Laptop delivers fast, AI‑accelerated performance—making it the most powerful Surface laptop for everything from multitasking to demanding workloads.
- The ports you need – Charge on-the-go, transfer data fast, or create the ultimate desktop set up with two USB-C / USB4[4] ports.
- Built-in AI Companion – Work smarter, create freely, and communicate with confidence—Copilot[5] on Windows 11 is always there to help.
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