AI applications are entering a critical next phase—transitioning from developer tools to widespread adoption by knowledge workers. A recent Goldman Sachs research report outlines a clear path for the scalable implementation of general-purpose intelligent tools, using two landmark products: Claude Cowork and OpenClaw.
According to information from ZhuiFeng Trading Desk on March 7, Goldman Sachs indicated in its latest research that the next stage of AI application as a general intelligence layer has emerged. Anthropic's Claude Cowork and the open-source agent OpenClaw are identified as two core data points defining this trend.
The report states that Claude Cowork, as the first "trusted case of agent workflow" for knowledge workers, is reshaping value distribution within the SaaS industry. It will not directly replace existing systems of record, such as CRM or ERP, but will shift market share towards SaaS vendors that can effectively integrate AI capabilities.
Concurrently, the viral spread of OpenClaw not only demonstrates a new form of future human-computer interaction, but its unique hosting economics is challenging the monopoly of hyperscale cloud providers. It is directing massive new inference compute demands towards alternative edge computing and VPS providers like DigitalOcean and Cloudflare.
Claude Cowork: The First Trusted Case of Agent Workflow for Knowledge Workers
On January 12, Anthropic officially launched Claude Cowork—an agent tool embedded within the Claude desktop application, designed specifically for non-developers. It automates file management and task processes, covering multi-step operations such as file organization, document processing, and workflow management.
On January 30, Anthropic further released a series of Cowork plugins tailored for "business functions," covering scenarios including sales & marketing, finance, legal, customer support, data analysis, productivity & enterprise search, and product management.
Goldman Sachs believes the core value of Cowork lies in bridging the critical gap between developer-specific agent tools and the chatbots routinely used by general knowledge workers. While software engineers have experienced productivity gains through terminal agent loops for over a year, AI interaction for knowledge workers has long remained at the chat interface level. Cowork extends this capability to non-technical personnel through an application interface integrated with Excel and standard business tools.
Specific implementation scenarios include: accounting staff categorizing credit card transactions; HR teams compiling tax reports and tracking PTO; CFOs accelerating project-specific DCF analysis. Among digital agent clients, marketing scenarios are most prominent—clients are integrating tools like Klaviyo and automating entire reporting processes.
Cowork's core competitive advantage is its role as an intelligent layer across the SaaS stack: it is not dependent on any single SaaS product, can switch freely between tools, and reasons about data spanning multiple systems of record and "glue layers." Industry research by Goldman Sachs indicates that Anthropic holds a clear lead in both tool capabilities and underlying model intelligence.
Cowork Won't Replace Systems of Record, But Will Reshape SaaS Value Distribution
Goldman Sachs clearly states that agent tools like Cowork will not replace core systems of record like CRM or ERP, and enterprises show no willingness to dismantle their existing SaaS stacks. However, as AI becomes a key differentiator, wallet share will concentrate towards SaaS vendors that can deliver the most effective AI workflows.
In practice, customers are using Cowork to replace lightweight "glue" software—tools whose primary function is moving data between systems—rather than core platforms. Dialogues with Goldman's partners indicate that enterprises still prefer paying third-party software vendors for security, governance, and operational control.
The partnership between Intuit and Anthropic serves as a prime example of this logic. On February 24, Intuit announced a collaboration with Anthropic: Intuit will gain access to Anthropic's models and custom AI agents via the Claude Agent SDK, while Anthropic will promote Intuit products on the Cowork, Claude for Enterprise, and Claude.ai platforms through MCP integration.
Goldman Sachs views the rationale behind this partnership as similar to Intuit's previously reported $100 million annual agreement with OpenAI: the foundational model company monetizes model capabilities and reach without building custom workflows; Intuit retains control over data and maintains its unit economics.
Potential risks exist, as adding a layer between the customer and Intuit could lead to value abstraction over the long term; however, the potential benefit is improved customer acquisition, analogous to search engine partnerships during the Web 2.0 era.
Notably, on March 5, OpenAI launched GPT-5.4—its first general-purpose model with native computer usage capabilities. Similar to Claude Cowork, it can operate a computer and execute agent workflows across applications. OpenAI specifically highlighted that this model reduces token consumption by approximately 47% on certain tasks compared to its predecessor, while maintaining the same accuracy.
OpenClaw: Breaking Context Limits, Showcasing New Directions for HCI and Compute Demand
Goldman Sachs believes OpenClaw achieves viral growth in consumer applications by granting AI agents full computer control and unlimited memory; its unique local and low-cost VPS hosting model is becoming a significant boon for edge computing providers.
OpenClaw, first released in November 2025 and achieving "viral" spread in late January, is an open-source, self-hosted, always-on AI agent that runs on a user's local computer. It can receive instructions via personal messaging platforms like iMessage, WhatsApp, and Google Chat, and execute any task a human can perform, including opening applications, browsing the web, and completing transactions.
OpenClaw addresses a key technical bottleneck limiting most AI agents—the context window problem. Its solution is a file-based memory system: all agent activity is stored in Markdown files on the local computer, with the agent loading the day's memory and the previous day's context at the start of each session. Users can also establish long-term memory via instructions, creating a persistent preference database.
Matthew Prince, Co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare, noted that OpenClaw's development trajectory over the next three years could mirror ChatGPT's path over the past three: it is currently catalyzing extensive experimentation, but similar to ChatGPT's early days, it might take years to achieve sustained, scaled daily usage.
OpenClaw's Compute Economics: A Structural Opportunity for Edge and VPS Providers
OpenClaw's hosting economics hold significant implications for investors. Due to cost volatility among hyperscalers, most users opt to run OpenClaw on home hardware or low-cost VPS providers like Cloudflare and DigitalOcean. Some users incur token costs reaching thousands of dollars within the first few days of use.
Many users are adopting a layered model architecture: frontier models handle orchestration, while smaller models execute sub-tasks, thereby reducing the cost per query.
Data from DigitalOcean is particularly telling: within days of OpenClaw's release, customers deployed nearly 30,000 native one-click OpenClaw Droplets on DigitalOcean, with thousands of additional deployments activated. Within DigitalOcean's AI customer revenue, the proportion from inference services continues to grow—AI customer ARR reached $120 million in December 2025, with non-bare metal business accounting for 70%, and inference services growing 254% year-over-year.
While Cloudflare has not yet observed a significant impact from OpenClaw on logo growth or network traffic, Goldman Sachs believes this trend further validates the leading price-performance advantage of Cloudflare's edge network and Workers software.
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