AI agent distribution could become the next bottleneck

The next agent bottleneck may come after the product is built

An AI agent can be ready for customers, win a buyer’s approval, and still take weeks to reach live use. That gap matters more as agent development gets faster because commercial processes can keep moving at their previous speed. An unnamed observer of hundreds of ISV partnerships over the past 18 months says the companies pulling ahead are distinguished by how quickly customers move from discovery to deployment, rather than by a simple lead in features.

That deployment gap broadens the meaning of distribution for an independent software vendor, or ISV. Nearly every software company is investing heavily in agent development, according to the same observer, while fewer are redesigning the path from discovery through purchase to activation. Distribution here covers whether a buyer can find an agent, transact for it, and start using it. Product development can move quickly while the commercial path slows adoption.

Faster development makes that mismatch more consequential because contracting, tax handling, licensing, and provisioning can remain slow even when an agent moves rapidly from concept to market. Those activities are part of the transaction architecture: the systems and processes that turn a buying decision into a completed purchase and deployment. Buyer approval starts that process, while live deployment turns the buyer’s intent into product use and, ultimately, revenue.

After “yes,” the transaction can still consume the sale

Once a buyer agrees to proceed, the remaining transaction can include contracting → invoicing → tax calculation → licensing → provisioning → fulfillment → payment → finance reconciliation. Different deals require different parts of that sequence, but every relevant handoff creates another place where activation and recognized revenue can be delayed. The work after approval can consequently determine how quickly a won deal becomes a live customer.

Those handoffs remain even as agent development gets faster. Teams may still manage contracts manually, create custom invoices, conduct tax reviews, arrange licenses, or wait for provisioning after the customer has made a buying decision. The observer says these processes can turn what could have been a 48-hour deal into a 45-day cycle. During that interval, urgency can fade, the internal champion can shift attention, and a competitor gets another opportunity to enter the decision.

Gutenburg shows how changing this transaction layer can alter that cycle. Its healthcare sales had historically taken 30–45 days. One healthcare organization urgently needed a tool that could help it produce documents aligned with Americans with Disabilities Act and accessibility requirements. For that buyer, the time between interest and activation directly affected how quickly it could address the need.

For that deal, Gutenburg used AgentExchange custom pricing and automated transaction capabilities to streamline contracting, tax calculation, provisioning, and other work between buyer interest and activation. The resulting timing changes covered the complete sales cycle, the final contract stage, and a narrower set of contracting and tax tasks:

Those timings place at least part of the delay in commercial execution. In this case, changing how transaction work was handled let an urgent buyer move on a timescale closer to its purchasing decision. Gutenburg also has a commercial interest in that outcome because faster transactions can help it close sales through AgentExchange, so its statements describe the benefits from a participating seller’s perspective.

Zamial Jones, VP of Customer Success at Gutenburg, describes the narrower contracting and tax step: “AgentExchange condenses contracting and tax calculations into a 10-minute process with improved accuracy.” Jones adds, “For partners spending hours on these tasks for every deal, that’s transformational.” His description connects the broader cycle-time change to specific administrative work that happens after a customer wants to buy.

That administrative work becomes customer-facing because buyers experience contracting, tax work, and provisioning as time before the product becomes usable. Sellers experience the same interval as delayed activation and revenue, while their commercial teams spend effort administering an agreement they have already won. Transaction design can therefore shape the customer experience before the software itself ever runs.

PandaDoc shows another path through procurement

The same post-approval constraint appears in PandaDoc’s AgentExchange experience, although its example focuses on an existing commercial relationship. Customers can access PandaDoc through AgentExchange and transact using an existing Salesforce contract, which reduces the extra procurement work between choosing the product and deploying it. PandaDoc describes the result as a move from a process lasting multiple weeks to activation on the same day.

Keith Rabkin, CEO of PandaDoc, says, “AgentExchange removes the traditional procurement friction that slows deals. Customers can now discover, purchase, and deploy PandaDoc directly through their existing Salesforce contract, turning what used to be a multi-week process into a same-day activation.” The existing Salesforce relationship gives the transaction a commercial path that is already in place, so procurement can build on an agreement the customer already uses.

PandaDoc, like Gutenburg, benefits commercially when customers can buy its product more quickly through AgentExchange, which makes its assessment an interested vendor claim. The two cases provide different kinds of detail: Gutenburg identifies several transaction stages and timings, while PandaDoc describes the effect of reusing an existing Salesforce contract. Together they illustrate two ways transaction design can shorten the path from demand to use without requiring the cases to establish a market-wide effect.

Distribution starts before the buyer says yes

The distribution problem begins earlier because buyers increasingly have software that can help determine which products reach consideration. Gartner predicts that by 2028, 90% of B2B purchases will be guided by AI agents. That forecast makes discovery part of the same distribution system that later handles the transaction.

AI-guided purchasing can shape discovery and evaluation while people continue to make enterprise buying decisions. AI can identify products, scan marketplaces, compare alternatives, and narrow the set a human buyer evaluates further. An agent can therefore face an initial evaluation before a salesperson joins the process or a customer schedules a demo.

That earlier evaluation changes the role of marketplace presence. If purchasing agents search relevant discovery environments to build a shortlist, an absent agent can miss consideration before a later sales conversation can happen. Discoverability then affects whether a product enters the decision process and creates demand for the downstream commercial path.

The purchasing journey consequently creates timing pressure on both sides of the buyer’s “yes.” AI-guided discovery can influence which products reach consideration before the decision, while procurement and operational handoffs can consume urgency afterward. Distribution connects those stages because an agent has to become findable, buyable, and then usable.

Treat distribution as part of product design

For an ISV, treating distribution as part of product design means planning discovery, purchasing, contracting, billing, licensing, provisioning, fulfillment, and activation as one customer path. That path requires deliberate product and engineering attention when its handoffs determine how quickly a customer gets value. The Gutenburg case gives a concrete example: transaction work changed the time to use after the customer already had an urgent need.

AgentExchange combines several parts of that path in one destination for apps, agents, and integrations that extend and connect with Salesforce and Slack. Partners can use it for functions including custom pricing, billing, licensing, provisioning, and fulfillment; in Gutenburg’s case, custom pricing and automated transactions were the relevant changes. Salesforce has a commercial interest in wider AgentExchange adoption, so claims about the value of this integrated model should be read in the context of Salesforce operating the marketplace and benefiting when partners and customers use it.

The same operating principle applies outside a particular marketplace. The unnamed observer says the leading ISV partners they have watched treat distribution as a product problem that is resourced, measured, and iterated. The same observer says organizations that leave go-to-market until after launch are “consistently 6 to 12 months behind.” For product and engineering leaders, the practical consequence is that commercialization needs planning before launch when transaction work can determine deployment speed.

That planning connects distribution decisions to the economics of scaling an ISV. The examples are associated with claims that revenue can grow without matching headcount growth, marketplace discoverability can expand pipeline coverage, and customers buying additional products through the same channel can raise net recurring revenue. Those mechanisms follow from reducing manual commercial work, reaching more potential buyers, and giving existing customers a path to make additional purchases.

The timing of that investment matters as the agent market develops. The app economy took “a decade” to mature, while the observer expects the agent economy to mature faster and argues that early marketplace distribution can influence which companies establish strong category positions. An ISV that increases its agent release speed consequently faces a second capacity question: whether its commercial systems can handle the resulting flow of products and customers.

Product value still determines the investment boundary

Commercial speed operates alongside the reasons customers choose one agent over another. Domain expertise, workflow depth, proprietary data, and customer context still shape product value. Distribution adds another constraint because useful capabilities have limited commercial effect when the product misses consideration or remains stuck between approval and use.

That boundary matters when leaders allocate engineering capacity. The two favorable AgentExchange cases show how particular transaction paths can accelerate deployment, Gartner’s forecast points to growing AI involvement in purchasing, and the unnamed observer contributes experience from ISV partnerships. These inputs support treating discovery and transaction execution as systems that product teams can design and measure while continuing to invest in the capabilities that produce customer value.

For ISV leaders deciding where to spend the next two quarters, the practical task is to allocate work across both areas. Reasoning capability deserves investment wherever it improves the customer outcome. Product and engineering planning can also assign owners and measures to the path through discovery, purchase, contracting, provisioning, and activation, so a faster release process is matched by a commercial system capable of getting each agent into live use.

Key executive takeaways

• Treat distribution as a product system: ISVs that design discovery, purchasing, contracting, provisioning and activation together can reduce the time between buyer interest and live use. Product and engineering owners can measure these steps alongside release speed.
• Remove friction after the buyer says yes: Contracting, tax, licensing and provisioning can turn an approved purchase into a weeks-long process. Gutenburg reduced a historically 30–45-day healthcare sales cycle to 48 hours by streamlining transaction work through AgentExchange.
• Use existing commercial relationships to accelerate procurement: PandaDoc says customers purchasing through an existing Salesforce contract can move from a multi-week process to same-day activation. ISVs can identify where established contracts and automated transactions eliminate repeated procurement work.
• Design for AI-guided discovery: Gartner predicts AI agents will guide 90% of B2B purchases by 2028. ISVs can prepare by making products discoverable in the marketplaces and environments purchasing agents use to identify and compare options.
• Resource distribution before launch: Faster agent development creates little commercial advantage when sales and deployment systems cannot keep pace. Product, engineering and commercial teams can assign ownership, capacity and metrics to distribution while agents are still being developed.
• Preserve investment in product value: Distribution determines how efficiently an agent reaches customers, while domain expertise, workflow depth, proprietary data and customer context determine why customers choose it. ISVs can allocate engineering capacity across both product capability and the systems that move demand into deployment.