Every productivity revolution has the same pattern. Spreadsheets, email, CRM, cloud. The executives who lean in early get a moat that takes everyone else years to close.
AI agents are doing it right now. Most executives haven't internalized how big the gap is going to be.
Here's what's actually changed. For 30 years, custom software meant hiring a vendor, sending consultants, spending months explaining your business to people who didn't know it, and ending up with something that was 70% right.
Now AI agents build the software directly with the people who actually run the business. Your sales engineer walks through how they think about a deal. The agents capture it, ask clarifying questions, and build the system. Weeks instead of a year.
We've all lived this transformation before. Travel agents got disrupted by online booking. Accountants got disrupted by TurboTax. Web developers got disrupted by Squarespace. The good ones in each case didn't disappear, they moved up the value chain. Custom software consultants are next.
I'm building Customware around this for CPQ (configure, price, quote) software specifically, because CPQ is one of the worst offenders. Salesforce CPQ implementations run 6 to 18 months and $100K to $500K in services. Insane in 2026.
The executives who push this forward in the next 12 months are going to look like geniuses in 2027. Their reps will get more quotes out, close more deals, and run leaner teams. The ones who wait will spend the next decade catching up.
What's the process at your company that's eating the most time? That's where to start.