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​AI Agent Pricing​

In a world where AI agents are 2.5-3x as productive as humans, which would parallel mechanical robots, how does a software company price?

Building on yesterday’s post, pricing in software companies may change significantly when AI agents become the norm. What does a software seat mean when a human is no longer operating the software?

There a few alternatives :

1. Triple the per seat price : If the AI agent is 3x as productive as a human, the software company could charge 3x as much per seat. This would be a significant increase in price, but the value of the software would be much higher. Tripling prices will be a hard sell :
2. Move to usage based pricing : Jamin makes the case that AI software will be priced like databases since the AI is using the database directly. Just as databases charge for compute, AI agents will charge for compute.
3. Pay for performance : 11x, the automated SDR company, is exploring charging for meetings. If the AI agent replaces an SDR who is compensated for meetings, then why not charge this way?

The SaaS business model of the last 20 years for SaaS is a beautiful one. Annual prepaid contracts, good net dollar retention, and high gross margins.

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