SAN FRANCISCO: For two decades, the software industry runs on a simple equation: more employees equals more revenue. Every new hire means another seat license, another monthly subscription, another line on the invoice. In early 2026, that equation breaks.
The arrival of agentic AI systems capable of logging into enterprise tools, executing multi-step workflows, and delivering finished outputs without human input removes the human user from the software loop entirely.
Anthropic’s Claude Cowork, which handles tasks across CRM platforms, legal databases, analytics dashboards, and support systems autonomously, crystallizes what many CIOs had quietly been calculating: a single AI agent can replace the workload of dozens of licensed users.
The implications for how software gets priced and sold are fundamental. Enterprises no longer ask “how many employees will use this?” They ask “how many tasks can this complete?” That shift renders per-seat pricing not just inefficient but structurally obsolete.
PitchBook analysts describe the emerging model as “Service as Software” vendors selling outcomes and automated workflows rather than access and interfaces. An annual charge of $1,200 per seat becomes a charge of $10,000 per automated workflow, with software spend competing directly with payroll budgets rather than IT line items.
Incumbent players face a hard pivot. Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Workday are racing to embed agentic capabilities into their platforms before AI-native competitors render their interfaces irrelevant. Forrester advises enterprises to consolidate vendor relationships, eliminate commodity SaaS tools, and demand clear AI roadmaps from strategic partners.
Vertical SaaS providers serving healthcare, manufacturing, and other data-intensive industries hold a stronger defensive position, their proprietary data and deep workflow integrations are harder to replicate than generic productivity tools.
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