AI Is Eating Software Margins: How SaaS Companies Now Have to Price In the Token Tax
Summary
AI is turning software from a high-margin, fixed-cost model into one with meaningful variable costs tied to compute, inference, storage, and networking. SaaS providers increasingly move from flat per-seat subscriptions to consumption- or token-based pricing (examples include Notion, GitHub Copilot, Zendesk, Intercom, and Salesforce) to pass inference costs to customers. The infrastructure layer (cloud and core AI platforms) benefits structurally because every intelligent workflow requires more compute and memory, shifting strategic bottlenecks away from distribution. Companies that embed AI must now prove ROI while investors reassess the assumption that SaaS automatically yields premium margins.
Classifications
industries
Fintech & Banking
applications
Accounting and Taxes
AskAI Classifications
Labels
Customer Service Software
AI Software
SaaS
