Competition is intensifying over platforms that optimise multiple AI models with internal corporate data so AI can better understand organisations and execute tasks. Enterprise software companies are treating such platforms, which help AI grasp corporate context and play an operating system role, as strategically important. Microsoft, Snowflake, Adobe and SAP have highlighted products and strategies focused on context layers, governance and services for AI agents, while interest also rises in PCs and chips running AI locally.

Snowflake said on Monday it unveiled new features for its CoCo coding agent and introduced Datastream, a fully managed streaming service based on Apache Kafka, at its Snowflake Summit 26 event. The company launched CoCo Desktop, a mobile app and a Slackbot, and added extensions and plugins including for VS Code and Microsoft Excel. It also strengthened CoCo’s autonomous execution and automation with access controls and audit trails.