I don't think AI companies are selling software anymore.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately because we're in the middle of changing how we price our own product.

For most of SaaS history, the pricing model was pretty simple. You paid for access to the software every month, and what happened after that was mostly your problem which means if you got value from it, great, and if you didn't, you probably churned a few months later.

But I feel like AI is changing that.

For example, if I'm buying an AI SDR tool, I'm not really buying software, I'm buying the outcome I would've hired someone for. The same way if I buy an AI support agent, I don't really care how the conversations happen. I would just want customer questions answered (and correctly).

The software kind of starts disappearing into the background.

That's what got me thinking that AI companies are selling completed work.

And once you look at it that way, charging a monthly subscription starts feeling a little strange.

I’m actually thinking of moving our own pricing in that direction, which means instead of charging purely for access we're moving to a model where a big part of what customers pay depends on the meetings the AI will actually book.

That means if our AI doesn't book meetings, I barely make any money.

It's a much scarier pricing model than subscription-based for a SaaS company. 

Intercom is probably the best example of what I mean. They stopped charging a SaaS subscription for their AI support agent and started charging per resolved conversation instead. 

I kept thinking about that because subscriptions let you get paid whether or not you actually created much value for your customers that month and I think every SaaS company including us, has benefited from that at some point.

If you're charging for the outcomes you bring, then you don't really get that cushion anymore. So if the AI doesn't actually deliver, you don't get paid.

That's the trade I’m choosing to make.