{"path":"/beyond-the-application/the-disaggregation-of-software","content":{"title":"The Disaggregation of Software","summary":"Agent-led discovery, composition and construction may loosen fixed software bundles and change what counts as an application.","body":"An application has traditionally been a bundle: a collection of capabilities that someone chose to integrate, package, market and support as a product. The bundle is often valuable. Shared state, predictable operation, one purchase and a coherent interface reduce the effort of using software.\n\nBut agents could progressively reduce the cost of discovering, combining and operating capabilities independently. That creates pressure for **software disaggregation**.\n\n## Smaller pieces can stand alone\n\nA specialised operation that would be difficult to sell as an entire application might make sense as a small service used by many agents. Such [software slivers](/beyond-the-application/the-disaggregation-of-software/software-slivers) could compete against features embedded in large suites.\n\nThe classic “everyone uses a different 10%” problem becomes less constraining when an agent can choose only the relevant pieces. Those pieces need not come from the same supplier.\n\n## Composition—and construction\n\nDiscovery and composition are only the first stages. If a suitable capability does not exist, an agent may be able to [construct it on demand](/beyond-the-application/the-disaggregation-of-software/de-novo-capability-construction), combine it with existing services and discard it when no longer needed.\n\nThe resulting software may be triggered by human requests, incoming events, schedules or other agents. Some arrangements will persist for years; others may exist for a single task.\n\nEven the human interface can become more fluid: small [generated interface pieces](/beyond-the-application/the-disappearing-interface/dynamically-generated-interfaces) can accompany a changing set of capabilities.\n\n## Continuity without a fixed bundle\n\nPeople and organisations still need continuity. Stable data, predictable workflows, permissions, auditability and familiar experiences matter. An evolving solution might therefore keep a recognisable human surface while its underlying implementation changes repeatedly.\n\nThis suggests a possible separation between the durable things—the user's information, goals and relationships—and the increasingly replaceable software assembled around them.\n\n## A direction, not a deadline\n\nDisaggregation will meet resistance where tight integration genuinely wins: low latency, complicated shared state, safety, reliability or support. It may also create new gatekeepers in agent marketplaces and discovery systems.\n\nStill, over the next decade it seems plausible that more software will be **discovered, composed, modified and created at the point of need**, rather than acquired as a fixed product.\n\nWe may continue calling these arrangements “applications”, or invent some other category. The terminology is hard to predict. The more interesting claim is that the underlying unit of software could become increasingly fluid.\n\nThis is a consequence of [applying intelligence late](/beyond-the-application/applying-intelligence-late), and a natural extension of [hybrid human–agent software](/beyond-the-application/three-models-of-software/hybrid-human-agent-software)."}}