Microsoft’s Rivals Lean on AI to Pry Away Longtime Customers

Artificial intelligence has suddenly made it cheaper and easier for companies to switch to new software providers, IT executives say.

Now large AI providers such as Amazon, Microsoft, Salesforce and Palantir are scrambling to win over each other’s customers, who might previously have felt they were locked into using old apps because of the difficulty of extricating vast quantities of data. To solve that problem, the tech providers are selling or giving away new AI that writes code to move corporate data from one application to another or to reprogram old apps in newer formats.