Why Platforms Must Evolve For AI Agents

We are seeing a great pivot underway as technology companies paddle out to catch the next big AI wave. Domain-specific platforms with capabilities operated by orchestrated AI agents are architecting the next decade.

Vendasta faced a challenge familiar to many technology companies: alleviating client engagement pain points while limiting the impacts of efficiency and tool disconnects. Traditional horizontal SaaS solutions (i.e., marketplaces and reputation management platforms) offer access to software but not the operational capacity needed to deliver enterprise-grade customer experiences.

Vendasta had to transform to become the next-generation solution. It reimagined its platform as an operating system for AI agents — digital workers that automate and orchestrate core business functions. By embedding AI employees into its ecosystem, Vendasta enables small- and medium-size businesses (SMBs) and the partners that serve them to scale customer engagement, personalize interactions, and drive measurable outcomes without expanding headcount.

This shift fundamentally changed Vendasta’s business model, going beyond internal productivity gains and scaling into new things. The platform evolved from a toolkit of disconnected solutions into a unified engine for growth, where partners can onboard clients faster, ISVs can integrate instantly, and businesses can deploy customizable digital workforces tailored to their unique needs.

How Did Vendasta Transform Itself?

In my latest case study, Forrester clients can learn how Vendasta pivoted from a reputation management platform with an undifferentiated marketplace into an all-in-one platform for franchise locations and owner-operated SMBs that delivers customer experiences that were once reserved for only the largest enterprises.

The results are tangible: Molly Maid, a Neighborly brand, achieved a 55% conversion rate in just 30 days after deploying Vendasta’s AI receptionist. One agency doubled its revenue in four months, while another paused lead generation due to overwhelming demand.

This pivot unlocked growth drivers, including:

A partner ecosystem that can onboard clients faster than it needs to hire.
An ISV ecosystem that enjoys instant onboarding of new clients.
A white-label opportunity that lets partners embed Vendasta’s platform into their own apps, accelerating time to market.
A customizable digital workforce of experts — such as vertical-specific chatbots — that lets partners deliver tailored solutions at scale.

A few Forrester principles help bring this strategy to life:

Ecosystem activation beats direct sales. Vendasta didn’t go it alone. Agencies, managed service providers, and ISVs became trusted channels for deploying AI employees. Partners already own the relationships and domain expertise. As noted above as well as in the report, one agency managed to double its revenue in just four months, while another paused lead generation due to the overwhelming demand. But early adopters should be aware that ecosystem-led models require significant investment in partner enablement and ongoing support, and not all partners will achieve rapid results.
Proprietary data creates differentiation. Vendasta’s AI employees leverage nearly two decades of proprietary platform data, giving them deep contextual awareness and vertical-specific intelligence. This enables SMBs to personalize their AI agents — such as a raccoon chatbot for a Toronto pest control company or a pet-themed receptionist for an insurance broker — turning automation into memorable, brand-aligned customer experiences. Still, building and maintaining proprietary data assets demands long-term commitment to data quality, privacy, and integration and may not immediately translate to competitive advantage for every business.
Platforms must become operating systems. Vendasta’s breakthrough was treating its platform as a workforce, not a toolkit. Tools still matter, but they now serve as the operating system for AI employees. As the report puts it, “AI employees now run core business functions — from lead generation to customer engagement” so that owners can focus on growth, not manual orchestration. Yet transitioning to an agentic operating system can introduce new complexities in governance, interoperability, and change management, and organizations should anticipate a learning curve as they adapt their business models.

Do You Have The Digital Maturity For An Agentic Transformation?

Your shift from services to agent-delivered work isn’t a distant forecast — it’s an urgent imperative. Whether you are a software company, a digital business, or a service provider, ecosystems in the age of AI agents will change the way you create and monetize value. But to capture that opportunity, you must make strategic architectural changes.

Let’s map your agentic strategy — schedule an inquiry or guidance session to explore:

How to evolve your application strategy from SaaS to agentic.
Where to start with composability, data fabrics, and AI governance.
How to leverage hyperscaler ecosystems for speed and scale.

Forrester clients can read:

Vendasta’s Transformation To An AI Platform For Customer Engagement to understand how Vendasta navigated the trend of platforms becoming operating systems for AI agents.
The Agentic Business Fabric: AI’s Architectural Transformation Of Business Applications to understand how this trend will play out across all enterprise applications and services.
The Forrester Wave™: Digital Experience Platforms, Q4 2025 to understand how this trend is playing out right now in the digital experience platform category.

The era of bespoke best-of-breed stacks is over. The future belongs to platforms that operate as agentic operating systems — are you ready to lead the transformation?