Platforms hit the Buffers

On the 30th Anniversary of the Legal Ruling (Section 230 (c) (1)) that for better or worse, cast the nature of our times, technology in the form of “AI” agents has driven the lucrative “platform” gravy train into the buffers.

Let’s look at those share prices again

Service sector work platforms derived from the search and social media platforms that flourished under the protection of Section 230 (c) (1) have proved highly lucrative in the age of digital paper-pushing. Markets however seem to think that “AI” might be about to eat their lunch, as at 5th February 2026:

1. PEGA – down 43% in five years, down 29% YTD
2. Salesforce – down 16% in five years,  down 21% YTD
3. Workday – down 35% in five years,  down 17% YTD
4. SAP – up 54% in 5 years, down 16% YTD
5. Atlassian – down 56% in 5 years, down 32% YTD
6. ServiceNow – down 5% in 5 years, down 25% YTD
7. Monday.com – down 44% in 5 years, down 27% YTD

According to the UK’s Daily Telegraph “AI’s apocalyptic jobs prophecy is about to become reality“, the future is now and markets, are jumping, perhaps to premature conclusions. It could be argued that these firms have been generously valued for an extended period and as such have become bloated and overburdened themselves with the bureaucratic impediments they propose to minimise in their client organisations.

Even if “AI” can deliver as prophised by its evangelists, the re-engineering of “legacy” systems and practice will be enormously expensive and time-consuming, battling both inertia and active resistance. What is perhaps universally true, is that benefits will accrue to early adopters while the frictions will accumulate over time, slowly but inevitably eroding any competative advantage.

Paul A. Strassmann’s book “The Economics of Corporate Information Systems: Measuring Information Payoffs” from an earlier era in the evolution of digital systems tells an interesting story.

A Minsky Moment

What is clear though, is that for the “platform players” and the management consultants that have feasted at their table, what cannot go on forever has finally stopped; a metaphoric and in some ways literal, “Minsky Moment”

Further Reading

Section 230 (c) (1) “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.”

The_Economics_of_Corporate_Information_Systems: Measuring Information Payoffs by Paul A. Strassmann

A Minksy Moment

What is “Platform Engineering” – Google