The news: This year’s HumanX in San Francisco revealed that AI buyers are quietly shifting their attention and budgets from “chatbots” to agentic systems, and from OpenAI by default to Anthropic by choice.

• “The buzz at the HumanX conference wasn’t about ChatGPT this time. … Anthropic stole the show, with attendees and decision-makers spending more time debating Claude than any other model,” The Tech Buzz reported.
• “If you were to ask anyone today, ‘If I could provide you with one AI tool, which one would you choose?’ the answer would invariably be Claude,” Arvind Jain, CEO of enterprise search and AI company Glean noted, highlighting “Claude Mania” among executives, per CNBC. 
• HumanX coverage emphasized Anthropic’s deep push into managed agents like Claude Code and Cowork pitched explicitly as “digital employees” that can move work across tools like Slack and Microsoft Word.

Attendees also voiced concerns about OpenAI—specifically its broad product focus, recent leadership-related press and its decision to add ads to ChatGPT. Despite its $852 billion valuation and ongoing IPO buzz, turmoil appears to be growing.

Why it’s worth watching: HumanX attracted 6,700 senior leaders from hyperscalers, frontier labs, enterprises, investors, and startups—making it a strong indicator of where AI dollars and focus will flow in the second half of the year.

Budgets could follow executives’ impressions as they plan for future AI spending. These decisions trickle down to what tools are adopted and used by businesses and brands. 

Implications for marketers: By anticipating shifts within the AI field, marketers can adjust creative workflows or remain flexible to sudden enterprise AI vendor changes. For brands evaluating AI investments, prioritize vendors that demonstrate a clear, uninterrupted product road map. 

Shifting procurement conversations from “Which chatbot is smarter today?” to “Which agentic system integrates better with our existing workflows,” can reduce AI integration drag and result in brands benefiting from their AI investments sooner.

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