Qualitate Disruption Matrix: Which Software Markets Are Most Vulnerable to Disruption

Software markets are most vulnerable to disruption when buyers are looking beyond the incumbents. The Qualitate Disruption Matrix shows where buyer interest is highest and where challengers are gaining consideration.

Below, explore which markets are most likely to shift, see where AI vendors are beginning to gain ground, and download the full results across 4 industries.

Every evaluation and usage intention considered in the above chart is backed by full context directly from buyers. Connect with us to get vendor-level reads across 10K+ companies.

How to read the Matrix

The Matrix compares markets along two dimensions, each shown as a percentile relative to the other markets studied.

Market Evaluation Activity measures how actively buyers are considering vendors in a market. A market in the 90th percentile is attracting more evaluation activity than 90% of the markets studied.

Challenger Presence in Evaluations measures how much of that activity is going beyond the market’s five most-used vendors. A higher percentile means buyers are considering a broader set of vendors rather than concentrating on the current leaders.

Read together, the axes distinguish markets where buyers are actively shopping from those where that activity is also creating an opening for challengers.

How it is calculated

Market Evaluation Activity is based on the percentage of buyers who said they were evaluating or planning to evaluate at least one vendor in the market.

Challenger Presence in Evaluations compares the five leading vendors’ combined share of current usage with their combined share of evaluations. When those vendors capture a smaller share of evaluations than usage, buyers are looking beyond the incumbent leaders.

Coverage

The Matrix draws on 8,000+ discussions with senior technology buyers conducted by Qualitate during the first half of 2026. It includes 124 markets across data management and AI, cybersecurity, enterprise applications, and fintech. Each market met a minimum threshold of 25 buyer discussions and 15 recorded evaluations.

Where AI vendors are showing up

The most notable area of disruption from AI vendors comes from the frontier labs themselves. 

Anthropic was named as a vendor being evaluated or used in 37 enterprise application markets in 1H ’26, up from 4 a year prior. Examples of Anthropic’s reach beyond its core markets include ranking #3 in usage in both customer service automation & AI and wireframing & product design.

OpenAI started from a higher base and has held roughly flat, while Anthropic’s footprint has climbed steeply. This indicates the inroads Anthropic has made with enterprise buyers over the last year. 

But largely vertical AI-natives haven’t landed in usage data yet. 

Vertical AI-native vendors have not yet made a meaningful dent in usage across deeply embedded software categories. Incumbents still own most of the installed base, and low evaluation activity in markets such as cloud ERP and CRM limits the pace at which that can change. 

Around the edges, though, AI-native vendors including DualEntry and Attio are beginning to enter buyer consideration. We will continue to track whether those early evaluations translate into broader adoption.

Cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP): 5th percentile for evaluation activity

Cloud ERP is one of the least actively shopped markets in the Matrix. But among the buyers considering a change, AI capabilities can help newer vendors such as DualEntry earn a place in the evaluation set.

“We looked at Oracle NetSuite. I wasn't too impressed with it. It just didn’t seem as user-friendly as I expected it to be. DualEntry seemed like it was a lot easier…everyone is focusing on AI, and I want to get our systems as AI-dependent as possible.” – Director of Finance, Real Estate & Construction | Small Business | United States

CRM: 12th percentile for evaluation activity

CRM also sees relatively little evaluation activity. Attio is one example of a newer vendor attracting smaller companies looking for greater flexibility and a more integrated approach to AI.

“We have heard really great things about Attio. We are increasing our spend. We were evaluating a couple of different CRMs, think that Attio's primary competitive advantage is that it's accessible and more customizable to smaller companies. We think that the AI integration is better.” – Senior Director of GTM/Growth, Healthcare & Biotech | Small Business | United States

Market spotlights

AI security (Cybersecurity)

AI security is one of the most actively contested areas in cybersecurity.

The AI security and posture management and LLM and AI agent security markets are both in the top-right quadrant of the matrix. Usage remains concentrated among large incumbents such as Microsoft and Palo Alto Networks, but evaluations are spread across a much wider set of vendors.

That includes cloud security players such as Wiz and Orca Security, alongside specialists including HiddenLayer, Prompt Security, Lakera, CalypsoAI, and Protect AI.

Most of those specialists already sit inside larger platforms: SentinelOne bought Prompt Security, Check Point bought Lakera, F5 bought CalypsoAI, and Palo Alto bought Protect AI. The buying spree is well-timed, as incumbents are buying the specialists buyers are already evaluating.

Search & social media advertising (Enterprise Applications)

Search and social media advertising is still dominated by Google, Meta, and Amazon in current usage, but the set of platforms buyers are considering is widening. The market is in the top 15% of all markets for both challenger presence and evaluation activity. 

Reddit is the most-evaluated emerging platform in the market, with buyers citing its growing importance to visibility in AI search. TikTok, X, and Snapchat are also attracting consideration, while Perplexity, OpenAI, and Anthropic appear in a smaller number of discussions as potential future advertising channels.

The market is expanding beyond traditional search and social platforms as marketers reconsider where discovery happens and where future ad spend may shift.

“We have done a lot of paid search historically. We know that’s really changing with AI and GEO and AEO…I am evaluating Reddit because that authority, people talking about you, and reviews are important for AEO and GEO.” – VP, Demand Marketing & Global Marketing Operations, Information Technology & Telecommunications | Large Enterprise | United States

Banking as a service / BaaS (Fintech)

BaaS ranks in the 98th percentile for evaluation activity, making it one of the most actively shopped markets in the Matrix. But it ranks in just the 19th percentile for challenger presence, placing it firmly in the bottom-right quadrant of the matrix.

Half of buyers in the market are evaluating at least one vendor, but those evaluations are focused on the names already in use: Solaris, Stripe, Mambu, JPMorgan Chase, and Treasury Prime.

Within that leading group, buyer interest is leaning toward scale. Stripe is the most-evaluated of the leading vendors, and JPMorgan's share of evaluations runs ahead of its usage. Solaris lags behind in evaluations as organizations cite fixed fees, slow integration timelines, and limited customization. Smaller middleware providers such as Railsr and Treezor fare worse given lack of platform stability and support, or as organizations bring programs fully in-house as regulators tighten expectations.

"JPMorgan Chase is sticky. If you can get in with them, even be it through a third party, you should stick with them." — Head of Operations, FinServ & Insurance | Small Business

The BaaS market is experiencing relatively high churn without disruption as organizations re-underwrite their BaaS stack, but rotate toward balance sheets, sponsor-bank networks, and integrated compliance rather than exploring net new vendors.

FAQ

What is Qualitate? 

Qualitate delivers expert intelligence for every investment and strategy decision. Our AI Moderator powers the full primary research workflow, from study design and expert recruitment to interview moderation and insight creation. See how 25 buyer conversations get done in 3 days.

How does Qualitate create its research?

Qualitate conducts studies across industries on a regular cadence, proactively interviewing technology buyers and experts using our AI Moderator about their forward-looking purchasing plans. The platform quantifies the outputs so they sit on comparable time series across 10K+ companies and markets. Full reports, data, and transcripts live on the Qualitate platform.

How is this different from a survey or expert network call?

Traditional surveys capture checkbox responses. Expert network calls give depth but at limited interviews per project they’re not statistically meaningful. Qualitate runs thousands of discussions per study, structured consistently, so the output is both deep and quantifiable.

Who are the buyers in these discussions?

Verified senior technology buyers - directors, VPs, and C-suite executives actively managing purchasing decisions at enterprise organizations. Qualitate screens for seniority, active buying authority, and relevance to the specific market being studied. Learn more about joining our panel.