So recently we’ve done deep dives on the SaaStr pod with several of the top leading SaaS founders — and of course, asked their perspective on just where we are with AI in B2B SaaS today.

A few learnings: 

#1.  Tooey Courtemanche, Founder CEO of Procore, The $12B+ Leader in Construction SaaS:  “AI Will Radically Change the Construction Industry.  There Just Aren’t Enough People.”

Tooey believes that while AI is just being rolled out at Procore, it will quickly change the industry.  He’s even hacking with DeepSeek himself now, pulling out his Python skills for first time in years.

The construction industry is infamous for being labor-constrained. With AI, Procore is poised to help its customers do more with fewer resources. “There just aren’t enough people who know how to build data centers, bridges, and skyscrapers,” Tooey explains. AI can help by automating repetitive tasks and improving decision-making through predictive analytics.

Procore isn’t looking to monetize AI separately—at least, not yet. “Our industry will unlock more budget for AI-driven insights once they see the impact on their bottom line.” 

SHOWCASE YOUR AI STARTUP AT SAASTR ANNUAL AND YOU COULD WIN $500K - $5M IN FUNDING FROM THE MAYFIELD AI GARAGE!

We're hosting the largest AI pitch competition of the year and partnering with Mayfield Ventures to bring you the AI Demo Stage & Pitch Competition to this year's SaaStr Annual!

If you're building the next AI breakthrough in SaaS, come pitch your startup.

Founders will be able to demo their innovations LIVE in front of the SaaStr Annual audience of leading SaaS CEOs, founders, and investors this Annual, May 13-15, SF Bay Area.

And who knows? You could be the one to take home the giant check for $500k - $5M in SAFE funding from the Mayfield AI Garage. 

So will buyers really pay more for AI?  Or will they expect it to be included in the already in many cases expensive purchase price for the core product?

We’re still learning.

On the one hand, many players in the support space have clearly been able to charge incrementally for AI-based issue resolution, from Intercom to Zendesk to Gorgias and more.  To often net net drive up ACVs around 50%.

Salesforce is going big here with AgentForce at $2 per usage.  Others are more cautious.  HubSpot and Procore are taking their time in deciding how much if anything to charge extra for AI.

Vendr’s latest data suggest overall, net net, ACVs aren’t going up from AI.  Not yet at least.

Paige O’Neal, CMO at Seismic, Marcel Cly, CMO at Deepgram and Founder of GrowthX and Marino Fresque, VP of Marketing at Sprout Social shared their real-world experiences implementing AI across sales and marketing teams.

 Here’s what’s actually working, what isn’t, and the key metrics that matter.

The TL;DR: 5 Key Takeaways

1. Only ~10% of teams are effectively using AI today, but those that do are seeing 10-100x productivity gains
2. The fastest path to ROI: Start with 2-3 concrete use cases per team, not a company-wide rollout
3. Content velocity is the killer app – one company went from 1k to 30k daily clicks in 30 days with AI-powered content
4. The winning playbook: Hire an AI consultant, create a clear template, start with tech-forward teams
5. Time-to-value sweet spots: Persona development (weeks → hours), case studies (1 month → 1 day)

The epic line-up for 2025 just continues! The latest includes:

• CEO Calendly (open AMA with Jason)
• CEO Bolt.new (SaaStr.ai)
• CEO Instabase (SaaStr.ai)
• CBO Perplexity (SaaStr.ai)
• VP GTM Codium (SaaStr.ai)
• CMO Cribl (SaaSrtr.ai)
• CMO Asana on How Bring AI to Your B2B App (SaaStr.ai)
• CRO ServiceTitan (as good as it gets in Vertical SaaS)
• VPM, RevenueCat

This edition of the SaaStr.AI Daily is sponsored in part by Prismatic

Not every integration request may make sense for your team, but they all make sense
to your customers. Saying "yes" more starts with the right integration strategy.

3 Non-Obvious Learnings:

1. Cybersecurity is actually outperforming AI companies in growth rates – and has been since Q1 2022 (something you won’t read in TechCrunch)
2. The smaller the company, the more fixed-rate pricing wins – usage-based pricing doesn’t become optimal until well past $1M ARR (contrary to popular startup advice)
3. The VC squeeze is creating a “survival of the fittest” at sub-$1M ARR, where survivors are showing accelerated growth rates similar to post-2008 patterns

The Numbers You Need to Know:

• 17% average growth rate across B2B SaaS (3x better than S&P 500’s expected 5.5%)
• Growth bounced back from 14% in Q1 2023 to 17% today
• Sub-$1M ARR companies showing surprising acceleration
• Must-have sectors (logistics, cybersecurity) outperforming even AI

In the latest installment of SaaStr Workshop Wednesday (sign up for FREE here), SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin did a vibe check into the state of SaaS, AI, venture funding, and the rollercoaster of building and scaling a business in 2025.

Here’s what you need to know.

AI Isn’t Just a Trend—It’s a Funding Filter

• If you’re not AI-native, fundraising is harder than ever. It’s not about just adding an “AI feature”—VCs are smart enough to see through that.
• The best AI-first companies are getting funded at insane valuations because their growth rates are unlike anything seen before.
• If your company isn’t inherently AI-driven, you need to at least be AI-curious and demonstrate how AI is shaping your category.

© SaaStr 2025

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