Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff recently announced a shift towards seat-based pricing for AI agents, moving away from consumption-based models after acknowledging customer demand for more predictable costs. Gartner predicts AI-driven enterprise software will grow from 2% in 2025 to 30% by 2035, highlighting the importance of these agents. While companies like SAP and Oracle also embrace AI, the pricing debate remains critical, especially concerning employee displacement fears. Benioff emphasized the advantages of their Agentic Enterprise License Agreement, which allows flexibility and reusability. However, experts caution that seat-based pricing may not be a perfect solution, as it can lead to paying for underutilized licenses. Forrester warns that premature layoffs based on AI could backfire. Moving forward, hybrid pricing models featuring both flat rates and usage-based elements may emerge, necessitating transparency and collaboration between vendors and customers to ensure mutual benefits from AI investments.
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