## the Future of Software is AI-Driven Purchases
Not too long ago, the way we bought software was, shall we say, *Netflixed*. Rather of receiving disks from a provider to load and keep on a shelf, it was transmitted and updated over the wire, part of a cloud-type delivery mechanism. Now,the industry is going through another transition,beyond software as a Service.
“AI software is now writing more software,” tech entrepreneur and investor Anthony Pompliano recently pointed out on an X/Twitter post. “Humanoid robots are going to eventually manufacture and assemble more humanoid robots. This idea of exponential productivity is something we have never really seen in our lifetime.The impact will be much larger than we all expect.”
So, will software also be deciding, purchasing, and installing new software as well? That day is already here, and may also help deliver some of that exponential productivity, as well as change the composition of an industry.
AI agents are starting to size up software specifications and purchases for us, as explained in a McKinsey report issued in October, suggesting that traditional SaaS licensing models may go the way of installation disks. Per-seat pricing models are being supplanted by agent-to-agent interactions that base software value on outcome- or usage-based models.
“We’re entering a new era where AI agents become the primary users of SaaS,” according to Vara Kumar Namburu,co-founder and head of R&D and solutions at Whatfix,which helps enterprises manage software lifecycles. “AI agents won’t replace SaaS or humans; they’ll redefine both-automating the routine, amplifying decision-making, and ensuring simplicity and control remain at the center of digital work.”
The Shift to Agentic Licensing: How AI is Disrupting SaaS Pricing
The rise of AI agents is poised to fundamentally change how software is priced and sold, moving beyond traditional per-seat or usage-based models to a new paradigm called “agentic licensing.” This shift acknowledges that AI agents, unlike human users, require permission to act within systems, not simply access to them.
“Its a permissioning problem,” explains Dor Sasson, CEO and cofounder of Stigg.io,a software billing service. “in the SaaS world, humans bought access: seats, credits, outcomes.In the agentic world, software buys autonomy. AI agents don’t care about seat limits or usage tiers; they care about the license to act, to read data, execute workflows, and make decisions inside systems.” https://stigg.io/
This means the current pricing structures are becoming obsolete. “AI agents don’t sign up. They transact,” Sasson states, suggesting agentic licensing represents a new contract between vendors and the software itself.
However, the transition won’t be seamless. Bryan Murphy,CEO of Smartling,a content translation and globalization service,cautions that the shift is more complex than current frameworks suggest. https://www.smartling.com/ “The real challenge isn’t the pricing model itself, it’s that most SaaS companies bolted AI onto products designed for a different era.”
Murphy, drawing on his experience navigating previous technological shifts – from on-premise to cloud to SaaS – believes the industry is at a significant inflection point. He notes that many enterprises are caught in a difficult position: recognizing the inadequacy of per-seat pricing when agents are performing tasks previously handled by humans, but facing significant hurdles in switching to consumption or outcome-based models. This requires a complete overhaul of cost structures and return on investment (ROI) calculations.
Successfully preparing for this “post-SaaS agentic era” demands a fundamental re-evaluation of platform architecture. “It means rearchitecting your platform from the ground up, retiring legacy features that don’t make sense anymore, and accepting that your product roadmap from 12 months ago is now irrelevant,” Murphy explains.
For customers, this translates to a need for careful vendor evaluation. “Evaluate vendors on whether they’ve genuinely rebuilt for an agentic world or just repackaged legacy tools wiht a chatbot interface,” Murphy advises.
He recommends probing vendors about how their pricing aligns with the actual value delivered.”If you’re paying per seat but agents are handling 60% of the volume, something’s broken. Push for transparency on how consumption is measured and what you’re actually paying for.”
Ultimately, Murphy believes the companies that will thrive in this new landscape will be those that respond to customer demand for outcomes-based contracts and demonstrable ROI, moving beyond theoretical productivity gains.