What do Uber, Amazon, and Domino’s have in common? Apart from these being some of the most popular everyday apps and services we use IRL, they are all software-defined. So while we may book a cab, order products, and grab a pizza from them, behind the scenes, it’s software doing the heavy lifting by constantly collecting and converting data into competitive advantage.

That’s not a reframe. That’s reality. 

Every business is on a journey to become software-defined

In its 2022 article, McKinsey boldly declared, “Every company is a software company.” Today, that’s not just a bold statement—it’s a business imperative.

Take DBS Bank for instance. Once seen as a laggard in customer satisfaction in Singapore, it is now celebrated as the world’s best digital bank. A leading Asian financial services group, DBS didn’t stop at digitizing banking when they started their digital transformation journey in 2014. It built internal software to 1. solve operational challenges 2. elevate its customer experience and then 3. transformed those tools into products offered externally. 

Take another example of a traditional tools manufacturing company we work with. Their business model was straightforward: sell tools, make money.

Today, instead of selling one tool at a time, they offer tooling-as-a-service where they partner with large construction firms and commit to keeping their projects running by ensuring the right tools are always available, serviced, and ready, backed by SLAs.

To do that, they had to embed software at the core of their business, leveraging Applied Intelligence through real-time data, AI, and analytics. Now, with every tool connected, they track usage patterns, like the number of rotations on a screwdriver, to predict when parts need replacement. Their supply chain is reconfigured to deliver consumables just in time. Their customer support operation has evolved to serve construction workers on-site, in real time.

This is no longer the “old” manufacturing business they ran. It’s a new business model that’s powered by a software-defined core.

That’s what it means to be software-defined. 

Software-defined business ≠ digital transformation

I often see people confuse digital transformation with being software-defined. 

It’s like adding a GPS and a rear-view camera to your old car and declaring it as software-defined. Yes, you are improving the driving experience, but the core of the car remains the same. Now imagine a self-driving electric vehicle with AI, cloud computing, and the works. The car doesn’t just help you drive, it drives itself, updates automatically, and adapts to your preferences. 

From a technical standpoint, a Software-Defined Business (SDB) is built on a unified, AI-ready data foundation that’s governed, trustworthy, and designed to deliver real-time, contextual intelligence. From event-streaming architectures to Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) workflows, an SDB processes data in motion and applies machine learning to learn and adapt, powering decisions exactly when and where they’re needed. Layered on top is a modular, platform-centric architecture driven by containerized microservices, API-first principles, and low-code orchestration. This enables teams across the enterprise to build, deploy, and scale with agility without breaking interoperability. 

Software-Defined isn’t a trend

From software-defined networks (SDN) in the 1990s to software-defined vehicles today, ‘software-defined’ has come a long way. Forbes called it ‘The Return of Software-Defined Business’. But in many ways, it’s only the beginning. 

For the first time, AI, tech infrastructure, market shifts, and rising consumer expectations are coming together to push every industry toward becoming software-defined.

On the AI front, in particular, its wide adoption and ease of access have made it ubiquitous across work and life. Not only does it make digital experiences more hyper-personalized, the use of AI in the SDLC also drives software development democratization. According to Forrester’s Priorities 2025 survey, the use of AI in software development across IT delivery will exceed 60% both globally and in India. Many sector-specific business functions will also become tech-dense (Forrester research), blurring the boundaries between IT and OT (Operational Technology). For example, in a traditional sector like Textile manufacturing, every function from cutting to designing, will see tech systems for process control, operations management and automation at large.  

So whether you’re service-led or product-focused, changing how you operate to stay competitive in today’s business landscape is mission critical. 

Three steps to becoming a software-defined business

In consulting and helping our customers become software-defined, we’ve seen a clear pattern emerge. Becoming a SDB isn’t about a big-bang transformation, it’s just three deliberate steps that build on each other:

1. Build Scalable Software Platforms

   First things first, you can’t deliver software-enabled products and services one at a time. It’s not scalable. Instead, we need to codify their enterprise know-how, like how a lender makes origination decisions or how an industrial tools company manages parts and replacements, into powerful, reusable platforms. These cloud-native, modular, AI-enabled platforms form the foundation for launching new digital offerings rapidly and efficiently.

2. Turn Data Into Intelligence

   As more touchpoints go digital, businesses start collecting massive volumes of data. But data alone doesn’t create value. So turning raw data into applied intelligence with data architectures that power autonomous, real-time decision-making is key as it unlocks insights that drive smarter decisions, improved operations, and real competitive advantage.

3. Transform the Business Model

   Once software and intelligence sit at the core, business models must evolve. You’re no longer just selling physical products, you’re offering a service, a subscription, or a usage-based model. You are innovating on ways to monetize your software-defined capabilities.

   Every business will eventually become a software-defined business. It’s no longer a question of ‘if’, but ‘how soon’. For enterprise business leaders, it’s the perfect storm to rethink and focus on the right products and business models that deliver customer value.