The next major competitive threat isn't a rival company, but your customer's own AI agent. These agents will silently and autonomously replace underperforming software by building alternatives or switching to a better API. This churn happens without any sales cycle or warning.

Agents don't operate in a vacuum; they need to act on structured, secure data stored in a durable system of record like a CRM or billing platform. Instead of replacing SaaS, agents will increase demand for platforms with robust APIs, making the future about agents *on top of* SaaS, not *instead of* SaaS.

The value in software is shifting from SaaS platforms (like CRMs) to the AI agent layer that automates work on top of them. This will turn established SaaS companies into simple data repositories, or "hooks," diminishing their stickiness and pricing power as agents can easily migrate data.

The current 'copilot' trend is just a stepping stone. The real disruption will come from the 'co-work era,' where autonomous agents handle complex workflows. SaaS companies merely adding AI features will be outcompeted unless they own a core system-of-record or have a truly defensible AI strategy.

The defensibility of large SaaS companies has been their position as the 'system of record' (e.g., the CRM database). AI agents, which can perform valuable actions and pull data from disparate sources, threaten this moat. Value may shift from the static database to the AI-driven process itself, upending the market.

Incumbent SaaS companies are starting to block API access for AI agents. They fear agents will bypass their user interfaces to perform the same functions, devaluing their core product and eroding the traditional per-seat revenue model.

The ability for customers to build their own software features using AI agents directly threatens the traditional SaaS upsell model. During negotiations, customers can now credibly threaten to "roll their own" features instead of paying for higher-priced tiers, weakening the vendor's pricing power.

SaaS products like Salesforce won't be easily ripped out. The real danger is that new AI agents will operate across all SaaS tools, becoming the primary user interface and capturing the next wave of value. This relegates existing SaaS platforms to a lower, less valuable infrastructure layer.

To combat the threat of being disintermediated by AI agents, SaaS "systems of record" like HubSpot are planning to charge for third-party access to customer data. This move is a strategy to create a new revenue stream and avoid becoming a free, commoditized data pipeline for other companies' AI tools.