zlacker

Assuming this ever works, this is no threat to the SaaS industry. If anything it increases its importance.

>>skywho+(OP)
SaaS products rely on resisting commoditization. AI agents defeat that.

>>TeMPOr+N
Yes, except for the fact that any non-trivial saas does non-trivial stuff that an agent will be able to call (as the 'secretary') while the user still has to pay the subscription to use.

>>nprate+n6
I don't think history opines favorably on companies that lose the last-mile connection with their customers.

For purposes of this thread, if chat AI becomes the primary business interface, then every service behind that becomes much easier to replace.

>>nprate+n6
That's the brilliance of AI - it doesn't matter if the product actually works or not. As long as it looks like it works and flatters the user enough, you get paid.

And if you build an AI interface to your product, you can make it not work in subtly the right ways that direct more money towards you. You can take advertising money to make the AI recommend certain products. You can make it give completely wrong answers to your competitors.

>>TeMPOr+N
You're probably thinking "SaaS for other tech end users". Most SaaS is not that.

>>nprate+n6
Will the SaaS also use LLMs? If so it opens the questions, why not and do we really need, as the article points out.

>>cpursl+dq
Isn't the majority of SaaS in ERP systems?

>>nprate+n6
Yes, but now it's easier for other SaaS to compete on that, because they don't get to bundle individual features under common webshit UI and restrict users to whatever flows the vendor supports. There will be pressure to provide more focused features, because their combining and UI chrome will be done by, or on the other side of, the AI agent.

>>cpursl+dq
I think that's just true in general. Business users at $work are already saying that they would rather just talk to ChatGPT (with voice for some reason I, a keyboard person, doesn't understand) than deal with GUIs. They want to describe what they need and have the computer do it, not click around.

Once you've abstracted away the UI (and the training on how to use it) it will be a lot easier to just swap one SaaS for another.

>>TeMPOr+QH1
Also, having to retrain users to use a new shitty UI after they got used to the previous shitty UI is a major moat of many SaaS services. The user doesn't care about the web portal, they just want to get work done. Switching to a different web portal needs to be a big net positive because users will correctly complain that now they are unproductive for a while because the quirks and bugs of the previous SaaS don't match those of the new SaaS.

In a world where the interface is "you talk to the computer" you will be able to swap providers way more easily.