AI-native SaaS counters apocalypse narrative
The guest argued that the feared SaaS apocalypse is being countered by rapid growth in new, AI-adjacent software categories and AI-native legacy alternatives.
The argument
While legacy software giants face disruption, entirely new sectors like Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) are emerging to help firms track their performance in AI models. Additionally, AI-native upstarts are beginning to challenge legacy incumbents in massive markets like CRM.
The thesis, stress-tested
✓ What validates it
- ✓Sustained market share gains by AI-native CRM alternatives
- ✓Increased enterprise adoption and venture funding for AEO tools
▸ Risks discussed
- ▸Legacy incumbents may successfully build or acquire competing AI features
- ▸Upstarts may struggle to unseat legacy giants with massive market share and distribution
Hear it yourself
"I'd say quantitative, but neither aspect of SaaSpocalypse is supported by actual business spend. Neither aspect as in it's going to change the way we buy it. Currently, it has not in any meaningful way nor has it killed off at least the companies that are frequently mentioned. This episode originally aired on the MTS segment Monetary Matters. For the last two years, the dominant story in software has been that AI will wipe out SaaS companies, collapse seat based pricing, and centralize everything around a handful of frontier model providers. But when you look at actual business spending data, that story becomes much harder to defend."
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