Enterprise Archetypes: The Size-by-Gravity Grid

As of August 2026. Phase 2 deliverable: the personas every later chapter references.

Two axes, not three personas

Enterprises differ along two axes that predict their agent journey better than any flat segmentation:

Axis 1: Size and regulatory intensity. This axis predicts the estate. SaaS portfolios run about 152 applications at firms under 500 employees and 660 to 900 at large enterprises (Zylo Jan 2025 [vendor]; MuleSoft Feb 2025 [vendor]: 897 apps, 29% integrated). ERP product lines are explicitly segmented by size (NetSuite's 44,000 midmarket customers vs Oracle Fusion's 12,000 enterprises; SAP's ~141,000-customer installed base skews large). Regulation compounds size: it decides whether formal frameworks are operated or merely cited (see the readiness assessment).

Axis 2: Incumbent vendor gravity. This axis shapes the default agent shortlist and the integration surface, not the outcome. The evidence for that careful wording: incumbents bundle agents into their suites (Gemini folded into Workspace plans at no add-on cost, Jan 2025 [vendor]; more than 90% of the Fortune 500 touch Copilot), yet Gartner finds 66% of M365 Copilot deployers run at least two other enterprise AI assistants (Jun 2026) and 45% of martech leaders say incumbent vendor agents fail their expectations (Oct 2025), while paid attach runs only 4 to 6% of installed bases for both Copilot and Agentforce. Gravity tells you where an enterprise will start looking and which integration surfaces are cheapest; it does not tell you where they end up.

Gravity strength varies by system: CRM gravity is strong (Salesforce holds 20.0% share, five times its nearest rival; IDC via Salesforce, Apr 2026 [vendor-published]), ITSM gravity is strongest (ServiceNow 44.4%; Apps Run The World 2025), productivity gravity is near-binary (Microsoft ~77% of SaaS enterprise productivity per Gartner 2025, with Google concentrated in SMB and education; methodology note: domain counts favor Google, enterprise seats and revenue favor Microsoft). ERP gravity is comparatively weak: the top ten ERP vendors hold only 30.9% combined (Apps Run The World, Aug 2026), so ERP-centric agent strategies inherit fragmentation.

The grid, with four worked cells

Rows: size/regulation. Columns: dominant gravity. Not every cell is common; these four cover most real enterprises. Each cell sketches: typical estate, default agent shortlist, natural integration surface, watchouts.

Cell 1: Global regulated enterprise, Microsoft plus SAP gravity

The most common large-enterprise shape. Estate: 700-900 applications, M365 everywhere, SAP (or Oracle) core with heavy customization, ServiceNow ITSM, mainframe still load-bearing, formal frameworks genuinely operated. Default shortlist: M365 Copilot and Agent 365 class for productivity, embedded suite agents (Joule class) for ERP workflows, plus at least one independent platform (the 66% multivendor finding applies most here). Integration surface: mature but partial API management; the gateway-first pattern from the integration fabric track (R03) lands naturally on existing APIM investment. Watchouts: governing both your own agents and vendor-embedded agents from day one; sovereignty routing; works-council and model-risk processes gate autonomy levels.

Cell 2: Large enterprise, Salesforce gravity

Customer-operations-centric businesses. Estate: Salesforce as the customer system of record with a large ecosystem attach, M365 or Google for productivity, fragmented back office. Default shortlist: Agentforce class embedded agents for CRM-grounded workflows; the guide's use-case-led platform rule applies (embedded where the data lives, build-on-primitives for cross-suite workflows). Integration surface: MuleSoft-style iPaaS commonly present; treat its connector estate as a tool-catalog candidate but hold vendor survey claims to the evidence bar. Watchouts: CRM gravity does not extend to ERP or ITSM domains; avoid one-platform narratives (the Phase 7 question bank exists for exactly this cell's sales pressure).

Cell 3: Mid-market, Microsoft gravity

The most numerous cell. Estate: roughly 150-300 SaaS apps, M365 plus Business Central or NetSuite, no formal framework operation (practice is manual and attestation-driven), thin platform engineering. Default shortlist: whatever is bundled: Copilot-class first, embedded suite agents second; build-on-primitives only for a genuinely differentiating workflow. Integration surface: little governed API estate; iPaaS or direct connectors dominate; the readiness assessment's light mode applies. Watchouts: this cell scales agents on vendor rails or not at all; the platform-building step from the recommended sequencing matters most here precisely because there is no platform team to inherit it.

Cell 4: Digital native, cloud-native gravity

Estate: best-of-breed SaaS, strong engineering culture, high API coverage, weak formal governance. Default shortlist: build on primitives (SDKs, MCP, open components) with selective embedded agents; adoption starts in engineering (matching the observed first-mover data). Integration surface: already API-first; the gateway pattern is an afternoon, the governance culture is the gap. Watchouts: eval and audit discipline lag capability; the rule that managed autonomy (A4) requires reviewed learning (L2) is the check against shipping autonomy ahead of governance.

How the grid is used

Every later chapter writes against these cells: current-state baselines, the path from a first agent to the target state, and readiness modes (light for cell 3, heavy for cell 1). Where a real enterprise spans cells (a regulated group with a digital-native subsidiary), treat the cells per operating unit.

Sources

Zylo 2025 SaaS Management Index, Jan 2025 [vendor]; Okta Businesses at Work 2025, Mar 2025 [vendor]; MuleSoft Connectivity Benchmark 2025/2026 [vendor]; Apps Run The World ERP and ITSM vendor analyses, 2025-Aug 2026; IDC CRM tracker via Salesforce, Apr 2026 [vendor-published]; Gartner productivity-suite share, 2025 (doc 6860166); Gartner Copilot/agents assessment, Jun 9 2026 (doc 7974937; 66% multivendor); Gartner martech survey press release, Oct 29 2025 (45% dissatisfaction); Google Workspace Gemini bundling, Jan 2025 [vendor]; Microsoft Copilot adoption disclosures via earnings coverage [vendor-derived]; Salesforce Agentforce attach analyses of earnings, 2026. Methodology note: productivity-suite share differs by measure (domains vs seats vs revenue); this chapter uses the enterprise-seat view.