On March 7th, 2025, we kicked off the inaugural session of SaaS Mondays, Live on Fridays, a new biweekly LinkedIn Live series dedicated to fostering discussions among SaaS builders, founders, and industry leaders. Hosted by Michael Cooper (GTM Lead, Omnistrate), the session featured insights from:
- Ermin Dzinic (AWS SaaS Specialist)
- Bill Tarr (AWS SaaS Factory)
- Kamal Gupta (CEO & Co-Founder, Omnistrate)
Our first discussion centered on the pressing question: How will AI impact SaaS builders? Below, we explore the key takeaways from this dynamic conversation.
Topic 1: In the World of AI, Do We Still Need SaaS?
The rise of AI-driven applications has led some to speculate that SaaS is becoming obsolete. But as Ermin Dzinic pointed out, SaaS is not a technology—it’s a business model. AI does not replace SaaS; rather, it is reshaping how SaaS applications are built and delivered.
Key insights:
- SaaS is a delivery model—not a specific technology.
- AI is augmenting SaaS, leading to the rise of Agentic SaaS, where users interact with AI agents instead of traditional interfaces.
- While AI adoption is growing, SaaS remains essential for software distribution, optimization, and integration.
Topic 2: Do VCs Still Invest in SaaS, or Is It Time to Rebrand Everything as AI?
Kamal Gupta addressed the shift in venture capital (VC) funding toward AI, highlighting a major trend: companies rebranding themselves as AI-driven to attract investment.
What the data says:
- In 2022, 22% of VC funding went into AI
- By 2023, that figure had risen to 36%
- In 2024, AI investments accounted for 42% of VC funding
While the numbers indicate a shift, Kamal Gupta emphasized that SaaS is still crucial for AI adoption. Every AI company still needs SaaS for software deployment, optimization, and integration. It’s not a matter of “SaaS vs. AI” but rather how SaaS is evolving to support AI.
Topic 3: Are AI Agents Driving Pricing Changes in SaaS?
Bill Tarr tackled this question, debunking the myth that subscription-based pricing is dead. Instead, SaaS pricing models are evolving to accommodate AI-driven consumption models.
Emerging SaaS pricing trends:
- Consumption-Based Pricing: Usage-based models have been around for years, particularly in infrastructure SaaS.
- Outcome-Based Pricing: Customers pay based on results rather than usage—this is especially relevant for AI-driven solutions.
- Hybrid Models: Some customers (especially in healthcare, fintech, and GovTech) still require predictable pricing and fixed budgets.
Bill Tarr additionally noted that 61% of SaaS companies already incorporate usage-based pricing, and that number is growing. However, many startups are also experimenting with 'bring-your-own-AI' models, where customers use their own OpenAI or AWS Bedrock keys to manage unpredictable costs.
Topic 4: What Technical Trends Are AI Agents Driving?
Kamal Gupta discussed how AI is transforming SaaS architecture, introducing new technical requirements that weren’t prevalent in traditional SaaS models:
- Long-Running, Tenant-Specific AI Workloads
- Unlike traditional SaaS, AI workloads require long-running processes (e.g., model fine-tuning per customer).
- This requires per-tenant isolation and checkpointing to avoid costly failures.
- Inference and Model Hosting
- AI introduces pre-trained vs. custom-trained models
- SaaS companies must provide secure storage and fine-tuning for customer-specific AI use cases.
- Context-Aware AI Agents
- AI agents need contextual awareness—who is the user?** What are they trying to accomplish?
- Solutions like Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) ensure AI agents make accurate, data-driven decisions.
Bill Tarr expanded on this, describing the evolution of AI-driven SaaS as headless and bottomless AI, where agents seamlessly integrate across multiple SaaS platforms, similar to a cross-platform digital assistant.
Final Thoughts: SaaS Is Evolving, Not Disappearing
The consensus from our panelists was clear: SaaS is far from dead—it's transforming. AI is not replacing SaaS but rather forcing its evolution in terms of architecture, pricing models, and customer expectations.
As Satya Nadella (Microsoft CEO) famously said, SaaS is shifting, but it remains at the core of how software is delivered. Companies that embrace AI within their SaaS models will be the ones leading the next wave of innovation.
Join Us for the Next SaaS Mondays Live on Fridays!
Our next episode will dive deeper into how SaaS companies can successfully integrate AI into their business models and tech stacks.
📅 Next Live Session: March 21st, 2025
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