Two by Two

AI comes to annihilate India's SaaS companies

Jan 13, 2025

Sumanth Raghavendra, CEO and co-founder of Presentations.AI, and Sidu Ponnappa, CEO of Realfast.ai, discuss the seismic shifts AI is causing in the SaaS industry. They explore how AI can transform customer engagement and support, moving from basic chatbots to advanced, nuanced interactions. The guests emphasize the urgent need for Indian SaaS companies to adapt their models to focus on outcome-based pricing instead of feature lists. They also touch on the challenges of integrating SaaS into traditional industries and the importance of data as a critical resource.

01:25:25

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Episode guests

Sumanth Raghavendra

Sidu Ponnappa

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

AI is revolutionizing SaaS business models, prompting companies to shift from feature-centric offerings to outcome-based solutions for their clients.

The rise of custom software development driven by AI's efficiency may threaten traditional SaaS models, challenging their sustainability in the long term.

Deep dives

AI's Threat to SaaS Business Models

AI is fundamentally disrupting the traditional Software as a Service (SaaS) business models by posing a significant threat to their foundational principles. Experts liken this disruption to how automobiles replaced horse carriages, emphasizing that continuing to refine existing SaaS products is inadequate. The transformation arises from viewing AI not just as a technological advancement but as a revolution in business models, challenging the cost structure and delivery mechanisms prevalent in SaaS. This shift calls into question the sustainability of current SaaS practices and urges companies to rethink their strategic direction.

Intro

2min

AI's Influence on SaaS Evolution

10min

Transforming Customer Support with AI Agents

9min

Navigating the Value Gap in Accounting Software Solutions

2min

Integrating SaaS with Traditional Industries

4min

Navigating the Future of SaaS in an AI-Driven World

4min

Artificial intelligence will affect all facets of modern-day business in some way or another. But it will most definitely go a few layers deeper with the type of companies whose job is to be a record of business’ today – SaaS companies.

SaaS as a business model is investment-heavy in the beginning. It’s risky to build, it takes time to build, and it takes skill to build. But if successful, it is a cash cow. Think of the biggest SaaS companies – Salesforce, Microsoft and Adobe. They spent years building and iterating on software products. And today, all of these products they poured money into make them billions of dollars.

But there’s a perfect storm that has been turning the tides, and the incumbents have seen the signs and have jumped at it to secure their advantage and not lose out to upstarts.

The one thing about SaaS products is that they have to be constantly sold to their customers. But with AI, the entire loop becomes a solution that makes the customer’s life easier. SaaS products integrated with AI will be bought because they’ll solve the use case of its customers specifically. Companies which usually resort to different pricing strategies for small additional features will have to reconsider and be aligned to deliver outcomes for their customer, not a feature list which is based on purchasing licences to gain access.

And in all of this, what happens to the Indian SaaS companies as the AI wave ushers in?

In episode 21 of Two by Two, hosts Praveen Gopal Krishnan and Rohin Dharmakumar sat down with guests Sumanth Raghavendra, CEO and co-founder of Presentations.AI and one of the co-founders of The Ken, and Sidu Ponnappa, CEO and co-founder of Realfast and former managing director of Gojek India.

Tune in to the latest Two by Two podcast to listen to an engrossing discussion on how AI will shake up SaaS models across the world and what’s in store for India’s SaaS companies.

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Additional reading:

The AI apocalypse is coming: Are SaaS companies ready?

BarbAIrians at the Gate: The Financial Opportunity of AI

The End of the SaaS Era: Rethinking software’s role in business

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This episode of Two by Two was produced by Hari Krishna. Mixing and mastering for this episode was done by Rajiv CN.

Write to us with what you thought of the episode at twobytwo@the-ken.com.