Software Ate the World. Now AI Is Eating Software.

In 2011, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen declared “software is eating the world.” Today, AI is beginning to devour software.

Instead of helping the industry improve, new AI tools and agents could end up replacing some software products entirely.

This anxiety crystallized in recent weeks with three developments: Anthropic’s release of a new autonomous AI agent called Cowork, the launch of industry-specific Cowork plugins, and the rise of OpenClaw, an open-source AI assistant spreading rapidly through messaging apps.

OpenAI added to the angst on Thursday by rolling out Frontier, a platform that helps companies create and run AI coworkers that are not trapped behind a single user interface or application.

“Is this the end for software?” Raimo Lenshow, a veteran tech analyst at Barclays, wrote in a recent note to investors. “The current situation in software feels very unique with the large overhang of how AI will impact the space in the long-run.”