SaaStr: Agentic Deployment Expertise Is Now the Bottleneck

SaaStr maps three phases: Phase 1 (raw models), Phase 2 (prompt-capable workers), Phase 3 (agentic deployment). Most companies are stuck in Phase 1 or 2. The ability to orchestrate agents into production workflows is now the competitive moat — more critical than the AI features themselves. A related SaaStr post argues AI companies should hire Field Deployment Engineers over Customer Success Managers.