Will Agentic AI doom SaaS?
ComputerWorld.com reported that “Concurrent with the rise of artificial intelligence in recent years has been an uptick in fear of it. With every new use of artificial intelligence comes the fear that it will cost jobs. Now that fear has expanded to not only costing humans their jobs, but killing off software as a service (SaaS) applications as well.” The May 13, 2025 article entitled “Does agentic AI spell doom for SaaS?” (https://www.computerworld.com/article/3981415/does-agentic-ai-spell-doom-for-saas.html?utm_campaign=subscribers-&utm_medium=subscribers_push_notification&utm_source=subscribers) included these comments:
Generative AI was the first boogieman, and now concern is growing around the impact of AI agents, otherwise known as agentic AI. Agentic AI is an artificial intelligence system designed to operate autonomously or semi-autonomously on behalf of a user or organization to perform specific tasks.
AI agents take initiative and make decisions based on data input from other applications or sensors. They can adjust their behavior based on context, user preferences, new data, or environmental changes.
It is growing at a decent rate. By 2028, Gartner estimates that at least 15% of day-to-day work decisions will be made by autonomous AI agents, up from 0% in 2024. This has led to the fear that AI agents will replace SaaS apps by rendering the software irrelevant. A simple search under the phrase “Will AI agents replace SaaS?” yields dozens of articles and postings asking that same question, fueled in part by remarks Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella made to podcasters Bill Gurley and Brad Gerstner on their BG2 podcast in December.
What do you think about SaaS and Agentic AI?