Try this in your own company: ask somebody for the answer to an ordinary management question — why that customer paid late, why that order stalled. Count how many places the person has to open. The management system, a spreadsheet, an email, a group chat, a PDF somebody saved in a folder. None of those places is the center. The center is the head of the person joining it all up.
The system holds the record. The work happens in the stitching between records — and that is the part nobody bought.
What software investors have already accepted
In May 2026 a16z put the thesis plainly: the system of record loses its primacy and becomes just an input, one of many, into an intelligence layer that orchestrates several systems at once. And the line that matters to a buyer: in the software era the weight came from accumulating data; in the AI era, the weight comes from orchestration.
Translated into your reality: replacing the ERP solves less and less, because the problem is not inside one system. It is between them.
Three demands that follow from it
Your data has to leave through the front door. A system with no programmatic way to read and write is a system that blocks any layer above it. That becomes a contract clause, not a technical conversation.
Stop buying by module. The question is no longer "does this system have module X". It is "how many systems does this answer cross, and who makes that crossing today".
Changing systems stops being the project of the year. If the layer above orchestrates, the record underneath becomes replaceable. That is good news: you get your bargaining power back from whoever locked you in.
What to do tomorrow
Pick a question your board asks every week that nobody can answer on the spot. Draw on one sheet of paper how many systems the answer passes through and who does each step by hand. That sheet is your scope — and it usually fits a project measured in weeks, not years.
Source: a16z, "From System of Record to System of Intelligence" (Gio Ahern, Stephenie Zhang and Alex Immerman, May 14, 2026).
How many systems does your answer cross?
The diagnostic maps it in your real systems, not on a generic diagram.