The Shift That's Coming
The last generation of enterprise software created trillion-dollar companies by becoming systems of record. Salesforce for customers. Workday for employees. SAP for operations. Own the canonical data, own the workflow, own the lock-in.
But agents are changing everything. AI systems are becoming cross-system and action-oriented. The UX of work is separating from the underlying data plane. Agents become the interface, but something still has to be canonical underneath.
What Systems of Record Don't Capture
When agents hit real workflows — contract review, quote-to-cash, support resolution — teams are hitting a wall that governance alone can't solve.
The wall isn't missing data. It's missing decision traces. Agents run into the same ambiguity humans resolve every day with judgment and organizational memory. But the inputs to those judgments aren't stored as durable artifacts.
Exception Logic
"We always give healthcare companies an extra 10% because their procurement cycles are brutal." That's not in the CRM. It's tribal knowledge.
Past Precedent
"We structured a similar deal for Company X last quarter — we should be consistent." No system links those two deals or records why the structure was chosen.
Cross-System Synthesis
The support lead checks ARR in Salesforce, sees escalations in Zendesk, reads a Slack thread. That synthesis happens in their head. The ticket just says "escalated."
Approval Context
A VP approves a discount on a Zoom call. The opportunity record shows the final price. It doesn't show who approved the deviation or why.
What Is a Context Graph?
A context graph is a structured, queryable record of how decisions were made — not just what state exists. It captures:
- Decision traces — The specific inputs, reasoning, policies applied, exceptions granted, and outcomes for each decision moment
- Entity relationships — Connections between people, accounts, deals, tickets, content, and other business objects
- Temporal context — The state of the world at decision time, not just current state
- Precedent links — Connections between similar decisions that inform future choices
The Key Distinction
System of Record
"The deal closed at $50K"
Context Graph
"The deal closed at $50K because VP approved exception based on precedent X, given signals Y, with policy Z applied"
Why This Matters for Your CRM
You can't capture decision traces in a CRM that's a mess.
If your data model doesn't match how your business actually operates, you can't record the context that matters. If your people don't use the system correctly, you're capturing noise instead of signal. If nobody owns ongoing quality, your decision traces decay into meaningless records.
This is why foundation work isn't optional — it's prerequisite. We build the foundation that makes context graphs possible.