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AI is killing B2B SaaS (nmn.gl)

517 points by namanyayg · 167 days ago · 729 comments on HN

Article summary

The article discusses how AI is affecting the B2B SaaS industry, with customers increasingly feeling they can build their own solutions using AI-powered tools, leading to a decline in SaaS sales. The author argues that SaaS companies need to adapt to this new reality by becoming platforms that allow customers to build on top of them. This can be achieved by being a System of Record, providing security and robustness, and allowing customers to customize their solutions. The author also mentions that their own company, Gigacatalyst, is working on a solution to help SaaS companies overcome this challenge.

Main themes

  • AI impact on B2B SaaS
  • Customization and flexibility
  • System of Record
  • Security and robustness
  • SaaS industry disruption

What commenters say

  • The ease of building custom solutions with AI-powered tools is not necessarily a threat to SaaS companies, but rather an opportunity for them to adapt and provide more value to their customers.
  • Many SaaS products are becoming legacy solutions with AI bolted on top, making them less effective and more vulnerable to being replaced by newer, more agile solutions.
  • The trend of customers building their own solutions is not driven by a desire to replace SaaS products entirely, but rather to avoid being tied into expensive recurring subscriptions.
  • Some commenters are skeptical that AI will significantly impact the B2B SaaS industry, citing the complexity of enterprise sales and the fact that many features can be replicated with simple spreadsheets or emails.
  • Others argue that the stock market's prediction of AI's impact on B2B SaaS is not necessarily reflective of actual business realities, and that the industry's challenges are more related to economic calculus and customer needs.
  • There is a concern that vibe-coded solutions may not be suitable for large-scale, complex systems, and that they may introduce security risks and other problems down the line.
  • Some commenters believe that vibe coding is primarily a threat to expensive, legacy SaaS products with inflexible pricing models, rather than to the entire B2B SaaS industry.