AI Disrupts the SaaS Sector: Towards Customized Solutions

The Impact of AI on Traditional SaaS

Artificial intelligence does not signify the end of major SaaS software, but it is profoundly changing how they are used. The future of these services lies in the integration of AI overlays that are both agile and customized, while complementing existing legacy systems.

The question arises: Will AI jeopardize historical SaaS giants such as Salesforce.com, SAP, Outlook, or ServiceNow? Is a new wave of SaaS, specialized by function or industry, about to emerge and disrupt the market?

A Changing Landscape

The SaaS software market is undergoing a transformation, but the most likely scenario in the medium term is the survival of traditional players. Although AI may weaken them, it will not eliminate them. These companies could turn to custom, modular, and agile solutions that would complement their historical data management systems.

Legacy software, despite being complex and costly to deploy, remains an essential pillar of record-keeping and reference systems. Their central role in businesses makes them difficult to replace in the short term.

The Giants' Limitations in the Face of AI

However, these giants are struggling to fully adopt AI. Despite significant investments, their technical architecture is often outdated, limiting their ability to integrate AI solutions across the board. Moreover, these software systems have been enriched over time through acquisitions, such as Ariba for SAP or Slack for Salesforce.com, making certain extensions vulnerable to AI.

AI could offer elegant solutions for tasks such as supplier interaction, marketing performance analysis, or optimizing collaborative workflows, thereby threatening the peripheral extensions of legacy software.

The Threat of New Entrants

In the long term, the question remains: Can historical SaaS maintain their market share and competitive advantage? AI lowers the barriers to entry, allowing new players to easily enter the market. For instance, it is now possible to code a complete CRM software in a weekend with the help of tools like Claude or Gemini.

Companies like Lovable enable the creation of websites at a lower cost, and realistic video generation tools are proliferating. Platforms like Gencore, New Gen, and Qeen AI are positioning themselves to redefine e-commerce, threatening established players like Adobe, Figma, Shopify, or Mirakl.

Google, for its part, is attempting to redefine e-commerce with a prompt-to-store model, seeking to disintermediate traditional sites, which could disrupt the sector.

The Emergence of Custom Solutions

At the same time, a multitude of specialized software is emerging, covering areas such as contract management or secure content writing. However, their added value is often questioned in the face of custom, modular, and scalable solutions based on AI building blocks.

Specialized software is particularly threatened, as AI enables the development of tailored solutions that precisely meet business needs. Furthermore, the 'lock-in' model through subscription payments, which increases with volumes and is periodically reassessed upwards, is becoming less attractive.

Towards an Agentic Overlay

This agentic overlay, purely centered on AI, automates or augments user activities within traditional systems. Rather than investing in a new AI-native SaaS, a company could develop a lightweight optimization overlay tailored to its specific needs, integrating into the existing system without duplicating it.

The millions of lines of code in a SAP or Salesforce.com accumulate valuable business knowledge, but the question is how long this barrier will hold against increasingly powerful AI competition.

AI is redefining the software market, lowering barriers for new entrants while offering companies the opportunity to create custom solutions. This enables them to increase their bargaining power with traditional suppliers and develop competitive advantages through agile and scalable solutions.