The Cognition Stack for AI-native Companies & Why Sales, Support, & Social Are Converging

Let's imagine the future construct of "companies," where a new cognition-based stack of technology transforms organizational design and peoples roles at work.

Edition #26 of Implications.

• This edition is a bit “out there” (fair warning). We’ll explore forecasts and implications around: (1) the rise of cognition-driven companies (aka “cognicos”) and what I’ve come to call “the cognition stack,” and why the value of AI may ultimately accrue to the first cognicos in every industry. (2) how support, social, and sales are all conflating into the same channel and (3) some surprises at the end, as always.

• If you’re new, here’s the rundown on what to expect. This ~monthly analysis is written for founders + investors I work with, colleagues, and a select group of subscribers. I aim for quality, density, and provocation vs. frequency and trendiness. We don’t cover news; we explore the implications of what’s happening. My goal is to ignite discussion, socialize edges that may someday become the center, and help all of us connect dots.

• If you missed more recent editions of Implications, check out recent analysis and archives here. A few recommendations based on reader engagement:

  • Why better management and measurement tools — and offloading of mundane and repetitive work to AI agents — will increase the talent density in companies.

  • How “proof of human” behind a creation will become a signal of meaning, and other insights around “artifacts of humanity” in the age of AI.

  • Over the coming years, we will stop going to the sources of information as the perfect summary, answer, or solution is generated and surfaced for us by trusted AI tools. Let’s explore the implications for the news industry, every website, and software as we know it in the era of abstraction.

The Cognition Stack, the rise of AI-native cognition-driven companies (aka “cognicos”), and why the value of AI may ultimately accrue to the first cognicos in every industry.

Let’s fast forward a few years and imagine what a new company born in the post-AGI world might look like. Bear with me, as this will be an adventure.

In such a world, every company will ultimately become a compute + data-centric company. Until now, humans have been the reasoning layer of every organization. Sure, every company uses technology, but mostly for the purpose of driving productivity and analysis to help humans make decisions and take action. In contrast, the next-generation company will be run by a combination of inference engines (real-time computational reasoning running every function and driving actions across the business), leveraging a variety of pre-trained AI models and a large amount of deep and proprietary data at the center of the company. This core of data, models, and computational reasoning will all be surrounded by “nodes" – the modern version of every “function” of a company from HR to product to sales - which, together, compose the logic layer that performs every process and operation of an organization.

Old companies were designed to help people work efficiently together. New companies will be designed for cognition - the way a brain works. ChatGPT defines “cognition” as “the processes and activities involved in acquiring, processing, storing, and using knowledge. It encompasses a wide range of mental functions—such as perception, attention, learning, memory, language comprehension, reasoning, decision-making, and problem-solving…the ensemble of all the mental actions and processes through which information is perceived, integrated, and acted upon.” I’ve come to call this new type of company, with a stack of technology that looks more like a mind than a traditional organization, a “cognico.”

Today, we will explore how a cognico will function and the important role that humans will play (don’t worry – we do still have an important role!).

• Nucleus: The nucleus of a cognico is compute and data: AI researchers far smarter than I am have stated that the race to get the best “pre-trained” models is slowing. Once all of the world’s information has been leveraged to train state-of-the-art LLMs (thanks internet!), pre-trained models reach the limits of what they can do and the game shifts to the inference/reasoning layer. This reasoning layer is the real-time computing that leverages your own data and provides the logic to solve problems and take actions. In such a world, you can imagine that the nucleus of every company will become (1) the data unique to the company, (2) the LLMs and media models (trained on both proprietary and general data) that are used for various types of activities, and (3) the inference computation that powers the reasoning layer.

  

• Nodes: The functions of a cognico are “nodes.” The current functions of a company like Financial Planning & Analysis, Marketing, Sales, HR, etc will evolve to become nodes of computing logic that leverage the nucleus (data + AI) alongside APIs from AI-first start-ups emerging in each vertical - from legal to sales and beyond, and the deft AI innovation happening across incumbents. And each node will also be staffed by humans (which we’ll discuss in a moment). Every function-specific node will be governed by a specific set of objectives, goals, and rules. It is likely that OKRs (the “objectives and key results” framework used by many modern companies these days to measure performance) will reign in this world, but the notable addition to the mix will be rules. Rules will be a mix of AI reasoning-engines that drive alignment with broader goals and adherence with laws and acceptable practices, as well as human-designed and -imposed rules that help maintain brand standards and cultural principles. What will the humans within each node of a company do? Humans will serve the role of either stewards, orchestrators, or leaders, and they will all be stakeholders of the many nodes across the company.

• Stewards: The “stewards” of every node will ensure that the underlying models, the quality and integrity of the data, and the logic of their node is effective, aligned with goals, adherent to rules, and is constantly optimized. These node stewards will also be trained to develop and ensure alignment with OKRs and develop, implement, and ensure adherence to “rules.” Their skillset is somewhere between a Product Manager and a Program Manager. In a cognico, where the majority of functions and actions are only accessed via agents through the logic layer and run autonomously, rules will be very important. Rules for obeying laws and regulations across different geographies, rules for adherence to company policies, rules for brand compliance, rules for pricing and business management, and the list goes on. I expect to see “rules engines,” delivered in the form of APIs, emerge and become an indispensable part of the cognition-driven company stack (if you know of a startup doing this, let me know!).

• Orchestrators: An “orchestration designer” is the evolution of a product leader and designer for the AI era who works above the nucleus. An “orchestration engineer” works within the nucleus. I call these people “orchestrators” because they primarily, if not exclusively, work with components that represent AI models, APIs, and very complex prompts. They are conductors of logic, leveraging or instrumenting the various components in a cognico’s nucleus. An orchestration designer understands the capabilities of pre-trained AI models for their node in particular, as well as their own company’s APIs and third-party software components that are ultimately stitched together to execute and optimize the functions performed in their node of responsibility. An orchestration designer also understands the language for programming and testing the logic layer of nodes, especially when it comes to using a new breed of visual design tools, let’s call them “orchestration tools,” that build automated workflows using these various models, components, and OKRs. Most importantly, orchestration designers have great taste. They will ctry creative things to unlock new edges in the market or attract attention through meaning and ingenuity. Orchestration Designers will also develop and evaluate the subtleties of sales communications sent to prospects, marketing copy and brand assets that are shared publicly, or an HR-related message sent to human employees. They are wildly imaginative and able to explore all sorts of permutations of workflows, models, and components using orchestration tools. They are the final mile of human selection and decision-making that will ultimately help differentiate the output of every company competing to win in every industry. An “orchestration engineer” is responsible for setting up, maintaining, and optimizing the technical components of the company’s nucleus that relate to their particular node — the data, the models, and the inference that powers their node and its contributions to the organization.

• Leaders: I don’t have a better name for the role that a group of people will play setting the goals and direction for every company. Leadership will be more important than ever before in the era of cognicos. If the company itself is a brain, the leaders must be the heart. They must set the overall goals, they must include leaders of each function charged with thinking about the future of each function in a creative way that models “trained on the average of what’s been done before” cannot. They must gut-check every decision, they must declare the double-bottom line for doing good in a world that tends to optimize for profit. They must also prioritize the parts of business that aren’t intended to scale - the art of business. The leaders of cognicos must also identify and advocate for the very human activities that will distinguish the company’s product and brand in the marketplace. While computers will help us think, they struggle to make us feel. Leaders will be responsible for the humans and the humanity of modern organizations in the age of AI.

• Every company will find, engage, and serve its customers via agent-based experiences and contextual UI powered by AI. This “logic layer,” powered by agents and user interfaces tailor made for specific needs, is the ultimate interface layer (an obsession of mine since 2014). If your customers are consumers, it is likely that your service will be discovered and used through OS-level agents, AI-enhanced browsers, or specialized interfaces that consumers use to plan and manage their everyday lives. If your customers are employees in companies, your services will likely be delivered as agents within customer workflows, or perhaps new interfaces to conduct work that don’t even exist yet. Future customers, whether they are consumers or employees in a company, will summon and use AI capabilities at the agent-driven surface of their daily lives and work. Will the mainstream operating systems of today reign in this new world? Will new agent interfaces emerge that we will all use in certain contexts? We shall see.

• What are the implications for the first cognico companies in every industry? Quite simply, the value of every industry will accrue to the companies that have the highest speed and quality of transformation into a cognico. The most important question as an investor these days, or a founder or executive making a career decision is: Going industry by industry, how much refactoring is there to be done? Such refactoring could occur in customer service costs, logistics costs, production budgets, sales overhead, and the list goes on. While today we see top technical talent wanting to work at the major LLM model companies, I think we’ll see the next wave of top talent flock to each industry to help drive these transformations. No doubt, the major LLM model companies are rapidly improving AND undercutting each other in price, accelerating the path to commoditization — especially given the rise of local and open- source models. What if too much attention (and capital) is being deployed to companies that MAKE the AI models while the majority of value accrues to the first to who use them in each industry? As AI completely refactors and reimagines the way companies — and entire industries — operate, I believe those who use this new technology may experience the greatest benefits.

• What are the implications for business models? We’ve explored in a previous version of Implications the rise of outcome-based business models, as well as paying for agents like you pay for headcount. No doubt, business models will transition in the rise of cognicos. Instead of paying for seats, we will pay for generative credits (essentially marked-up compute, or shall we call it “cooked compute?”), outcomes, and performance. Instead of charging for time spent, we will charge for expertise by project and the specialized compute required to meet our goals.

• What are the implications for humans? Consumers will get better prices, make better decisions, and ultimately benefit from better experiences in the age of AI. But what about the workforce? How many leaders, stewards, orchestration designers and orchestration engineers will companies need? What about the next generation of talent? As companies become cognicos and refactor their workforce, growth-oriented companies will have a choice of either shrinking the employee count or taking on more: more projects, more products, more campaigns, more testing, more high-touch human customer service, etc. My guess is that people will be retrained and redeployed to participate in more nodes to deliver on the growing aspirations of growth companies. As for the companies that choose to stay small and efficient, we will see 10x or 100x more of these companies. There are so many products and services that people would want but are far too niche to be built and deployed in a profitable way. We’re starting to see very small services emerge, from research and consulting to career support and production shops, that are founded and led by just a few people, without the intention of ever scaling. Finally, let’s talk about the return of crafts. In the era ahead, humans will crave more scarce, authentic, and offline experiences than ever before. We will crave small restaurant experiences with proud chefs. We will crave one-of-a-kind art infused with human story. We will crave theater and emotional films with deep meaning. We will crave shared experiences and live music. In the age of AI, there will be rampant demand for stuff that only humans can create.

Social is support is sales is social.

What’s becoming increasingly clear to me is that three formerly different stacks of products and people in companies of all sizes are increasingly becoming one. When it comes to social marketing, every event is a public marketing moment - whether it’s a customer complaining, a product leader responding to a question, or a social post marketing the product. As a result, the support folks need to start thinking like marketers, and vice versa. Same goes for sales, especially in the age of AI Agents that will greet customers across every digital experience with a “‘how can I help you?” If a customer asks a question, does that go to support or sales? It shouldn’t matter — every support and marketing moment is also a sales moment. In the social world, whenever a customer complains, everyone else is watching the response and judging the brand accordingly. Implications? As these three functions collapse into one another, a new breed of products — and possibly organizational designs — will be required to manage and deliver world-class experiences. New measures must also emerge that quantify these channels crossing one another, and help optimize them.

Ideas, Missives & Mentions

Hope you have a restful holiday and new years.

For those ready for an extra dose, here’s a set of ideas and worthwhile mentions (and stuff I want to keep out of web-scraper reach) intended for those I work with (free for founders in my portfolio, Adobe folks…ping me!) and a smaller group of subscribers. We’ll cover a few things that caught my eye and have stayed on my mind (including two ideas I hope someone makes happen, the consequence of NOT taking creative risks, reconciling memories and dreams, and a periodic table of branding). Subscriptions go toward organizations I support including the Museum of Modern Art. Thanks again for following along, and to those who have reached out with ideas and feedback.