The Business Model of the last decade was simple: SaaS. "Software as a Service." The metric was "Seats." You charge $50 per user per month. Investors loved it because it was predictable.
AI kills this model.
The Incentive Conflict
The promise of AI is that one person can do the work of ten. If a company uses AI successfully, they should hire fewer people. But if they hire fewer people, the SaaS vendor makes less money.
This means the SaaS vendor is financially incentivized for you to be inefficient. They want you to hire more seat-warmers.
Metric: Work is the New Seat
We are shifting to "Service-as-a-Software." You don't pay for the tool; you pay for the result.
- Salesforce: Don't charge $100/seat. Charge $50 per Qualified Lead generated.
- Zendesk: Don't charge $80/seat. Charge $5 per Ticket Resolved.
- Quickbooks: Don't charge for access. Charge $2 per Invoice Reconciled.
Conclusion
This is scary for vendors because revenue becomes variable. But it is great for customers. It forces vendors to build tools that genuinely work. If the AI hallucinates or fails, the vendor doesn't get paid. This is the ultimate alignment of incentives.