Fulcrum vs Hex
Side-by-side trajectory, velocity, and editorial themes.
Fulcrum ships steadily, but this cycle is maintenance, not direction
Fulcrum is in a maintenance-heavy stretch across its mobile and web field-data-collection apps. The recent releases are dominated by reliability fixes — ArcGIS connectivity, WMS layers requiring token headers, SSO sync errors, offline layer downloads — with a handful of small usability additions like an always-on map scale bar and the ability to background a GPS track before it collects points.
The arc here is incremental hardening of the mapping and GPS core rather than a capability expansion. The repeated ArcGIS and WMS fixes across Android, iOS, and web suggest a concerted push to stabilize enterprise GIS integrations, likely in response to customer-reported friction. Nothing in this window points to a new product direction.
Expect continued phased mobile releases focused on GIS integration reliability and offline sync; the entries don't support a confident call on any larger feature bet.
Hex is remaking its notebook into an agent that both uses and plugs into MCP
Hex is converting its analytics notebook into an AI agent platform. It now runs as an MCP client, is invocable from Codex, and ships generative data apps built from prompts, while keeping its model roster current with Kimi K2.7 and Fable 5 and giving admins default-model and branding controls. Integration and governance work — a Figma connector, AWS IAM-role support, signed embedding — rounds out the core.
The arc points at Hex as connective agent infrastructure: consuming external context and tools via MCP, distributing itself into other agent surfaces like Codex, and letting analysts assemble apps and dashboards from prompts. Expect the agent, rather than the notebook grid, to become the primary interface, with model choice and governance layered on top.
Likely next steps deepen the agent's tool-use over MCP connections and push generative apps further toward production embedding and governance controls.
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