SaaStr 839: Why Most SaaS Companies Will Fail at AI (And How to Avoid It) with Intercom's CPO
The Brutal Truth About Transforming a SaaS Company into an AI Company
Intercom's Chief Product Officer, Paul Adams, shares the unfiltered story of how they transformed from a struggling SaaS company with 5 quarters of declining growth into an AI-first company with a breakthrough product (Fin) that now handles 1M+ customer resolutions per week.
What You'll Learn:
- Why AI transformation requires "refounding" your entire company - not just adding AI features
- The self-harming decisions you must make to win (including parting ways with ~33% of your team)
- How to go from 0 to 6,000+ AI customers with 65% average resolution rate
- Why demos ≠ products and the "marketing overhang" problem
- The complete shift in how you build software (empirical evaluation vs. traditional product development)
- Why designers now ship code to production at Intercom
- How the buyer has changed (hint: it's no longer just the department head)
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