The ability for AI agents to access and operate on a SaaS platform's data is becoming critical. Companies that lock down their data risk being isolated, while those with open data APIs will become part of the new AI ecosystem, even if it means ceding the primary 'workspace' layer.

To increase deal size and escape the limitations of per-user pricing, embed AI into specific, productized use cases. This allows you to create new value-based pricing levers, such as AI credit consumption or custom AI agents, boosting average deal size.

The dominant per-user-per-month SaaS business model is becoming obsolete for AI-native companies. The new standard is consumption or outcome-based pricing. Customers will pay for the specific task an AI completes or the value it generates, not for a seat license, fundamentally changing how software is sold.

Joe Lonsdale advises established SaaS companies to go on offense with AI. Instead of merely defending their core product, they should build AI agents on top of their platforms to automate customer workflows. This creates new, high-margin revenue streams by helping customers reduce headcount and increase efficiency.

With AI agents in platforms like ChatGPT becoming the primary work surface, the traditional SaaS moat of owning the user interface is eroding. The most defensible position will be owning the core data as the "system of record," making the SaaS platform an essential backend database.

The traditional per-seat SaaS model is becoming a "tax on productivity" in an agent-driven world. As companies buy agents to do work instead of software for humans, the model shifts. Sam Altman's comment that every company is now an API company reflects this move from user-based pricing to value-based, programmatic access.

To combat concerns over shrinking corporate headcounts due to AI, ServiceNow is moving towards hybrid consumption-based pricing. Bullish investors argue this could be more profitable than per-seat models, as effective AI tools will drive significant usage and lead to higher overall customer spending.

OpenAI's partnership with ServiceNow isn't about building a competing product; it's about embedding its "agentic" AI directly into established platforms. This strategy focuses on becoming the core intelligence layer for existing enterprise systems, allowing AI to act as an automated teammate within familiar workflows.

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.