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Your Data, Your Moat: How SaaS Platforms Stay Essential in the AI Era

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Recap of WOW 2026 Embedded sessions: how Wrike, S&P Global, and Epicor build an AI moat from proprietary analytics, work data, and trust.

Haillie Parker

Oct 13, 2026

If a model can build a working prototype in an afternoon, what is left for a SaaS platform to defend?

This question was top of mind among product leaders at World of Workato (WOW) 2026. In Your Data, Your Moat: Orchestrate, Protect, Defend, moderator Kunal Khandekar, Director of Customer Success for Workato Embedded Platform, asked three customers how they built an AI moat, and why integration decisions made years ago now make their AI and MCP plans work. Here’s what they said and what you can borrow.

On the panel:

Alexey Korotich, Chief Product Officer, Wrike: a collaborative, enterprise-grade project management and work management platform designed to help teams track tasks, manage complex projects, and streamline workflows.
Andy Armstrong, Head of Business and Market Strategy for Credit Analytics, S&P Global: a credit risk analytics provider that uses quantitative models and data to score the creditworthiness of rated and unrated, public and private companies worldwide.
Umang Bhatt, Principal Product Manager, Epicor Software: an industry-specific, enterprise-grade ERP software provider for manufacturers, distributors, retailers, building suppliers, and automotive businesses.

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Saying “yes” to every integration with Workato

Each company came to Workato for unique reasons, but the pressure was the same: customers needed their systems connected, and their internal teams couldn’t build every integration themselves.

Epicor’s customers wanted to connect third-party apps, run their own automations, and stay in control. The CRM changes by region, from Salesforce in the US to HubSpot in Europe, and the HR system changes again in Australia and New Zealand. Epicor created a connector and gave customers access to the Workato platform, under the name Automation Studio.

At S&P, the ask came through RFPs, especially in Europe. Buyers wanted S&P’s data through a connector, not a point-to-point API project, and a faster path to value.

Wrike workflows span multiple systems, and from Salesforce opportunities to time tracking in ERPs, the permutations were endless. Wrike decided integration wasn’t going to be its core competency and chose Workato for its security, reliability, and operations. Wrike embedded the platform as Wrike Integrate, with a curated library of recipes for its core use cases that customers can use as is or customize.

What Workato made possible:

Epicor: Shopify and WooCommerce orders reach the ERP in about a week instead of months, and sales can say yes to any integration question in an RFP.
S&P Global: A supplier risk analyst picks one data package, tweaks it, and it lands in SAP Ariba.
Wrike: Workato hides complexity customers would otherwise face, and Wrike can’t manage workflows without connecting to the systems where work starts and ends.

“ERPs can survive siloes, but we cannot thrive. We have to have integrations available.” — Umang Bhatt, Epicor

“ERPs can survive siloes, but we cannot thrive. We have to have integrations available.” — Umang Bhatt, Epicor

The moat isn’t just data, it’s what you do with it

Andy was the bluntest. Financials, sanctions lists, headcount, and adverse media are widely collected and widely sold. S&P’s edge is the proprietary analytics layered on top, and getting them into the system where the decision gets made.

Alexey’s version of proprietary data is what Wrike calls the telemetry of work: every action taken by a person, a system, or an agent in a workflow. Customers use it to see where a process stands and improve it, and it feeds a flywheel Wrike has been working to launch, with early wins from customers. Umang’s version, from a different question, was simpler: decades of ERP expertise, which Epicor intends to hand to customers rather than fence off.

Notice what none of them described: a wall. Alexey said Wrike isn’t guarding its IP from AI, because it sees AI as a multiplier. Umang agreed. Customers already trust Epicor with their operations – guide them well and they’ll stay.

“The more data is in the system, the smarter your agents become. And the smarter your agents become, the more data they create back into the system.” — Alexey Korotich, Wrike

“The more data is in the system, the smarter your agents become. And the smarter your agents become, the more data they create back into the system.” — Alexey Korotich, Wrike

Roll out AI with guardrails that fit your business

Epicor calls its approach crawl, walk, run:

Crawl: an agent that answers help-documentation questions.
Walk: an agent that helps customers run 14 standard workflows, like quote-to-cash.
Run: customers building MCP servers on Workato to connect other apps and write into the ERP, alongside a headless ERP planned for 2027.

The guardrail is a split: Epicor’s agent reads, and Workato writes. On data sensitivity, Umang said Epicor won’t use one customer’s data for another, and the boundaries are still being drawn.

Wrike’s path runs from a copilot, to agents it calls digital labor, to Workmates, a next generation built to take on personas like project manager. Self-healing workflows are the long game.

S&P showed what guardrails look like in a regulated business. Its Credit Memo Builder cuts a memo that took an analyst six to eight hours down to minutes, and it supports the analyst rather than replacing them. Asked how much is AI versus deterministic workflow, Andy said it’s a mix, the line between what comes from S&P and what comes from a model has to stay sharp, and S&P is still experimenting.

“It has to be reliable. It has to be traceable. It has to be authentic.” — Andy Armstrong, S&P Global

“It has to be reliable. It has to be traceable. It has to be authentic.” — Andy Armstrong, S&P Global

“Can’t enterprises build this themselves?“

An attendee asked the question hanging over every SaaS roadmap: building is getting so easy that enterprises may just make their own systems.

Alexey said customer expectations are shifting, even at Fortune 10 companies. A new kind of user, non-technical and excited, loves that MCP lets them build on a platform’s data, and Wrike is investing in that. But the real cost isn’t the build. It’s everything after the demo: making it reliable, scalable, and secure. Enterprises still look to vendors for that, because trust takes years to earn, and they won’t jump on a shiny new tool just because they can.

Umang agreed. A proof of concept is quick, but someone has to scale and maintain it. His customers make physical goods, not software, and with AI news everywhere, they keep asking Epicor where it stands.

Platforms earn trust with execution, control, and Workato

Wrike, S&P, and Epicor didn’t start with AI. They connected their products to the systems their customers already ran, and that’s the footing their plans now stand on.

Each wants to stay essential, whether a person or an agent is making the decision.

Execution comes from integration. Control comes from governance. A platform needs both to earn trust from customers and from their agents. Workato ONE for SaaS Platforms gives product teams one governed foundation for every workflow, agent, and integration they ship.

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