Impact Pricing Blog

There’s a common argument floating around about AI agents:

Agents will replace workers.
Few workers mean fewer seats.
Fewer seats breaks per-seat pricing.

It sounds logical, and I’ve made the same argument myself. But then I realized that the same logic should have applied to SaaS twenty years ago.

Software has always made people more efficient. That’s the entire point of software. If efficiency automatically reduced headcount, then SaaS should have reduced the number of software users inside companies.

Instead, the opposite happened.

SaaS Expanded Work

Before SaaS, most tools were the domain of specialists.

A few sales operations people touched the CRM.
A few analysts worked with data tools.
A few marketers ran campaigns.

Then SaaS arrived.

Suddenly every salesperson had access to CRM.
Every marketer had marketing automation.
Every employee had collaboration tools.

And the nature of the work changed.

Sales teams did not just track deals. They logged every interaction and managed larger pipelines.
Marketing teams did not just run campaigns. They ran more of them, tested more variations, and measured everything.
Executives did not just review reports. They explored data constantly.

Instead of shrinking the number of users, SaaS dramatically expanded it.

Because when tools make work easier, companies usually do more of the work.

Same Pattern, New Technology

I’ve seen this firsthand with AI.

Before using it regularly, I would write a handful of pieces each week. That was the natural limit.

Now I can draft, iterate, and refine much faster.

But I’m not working less. I’m writing more. Testing more ideas. Exploring angles I would have ignored before.

AI did not reduce my workload. It expanded it.

That’s the part people miss. Much of what we’re seeing right now isn’t full replacement, it’s acceleration. 

A customer service rep answers more tickets.
A salesperson sends proposals faster.
A marketer spins up more campaigns.

The human is still doing the job. The software just increases the pace and the scope.

And when output goes up, expectations usually follow. Companies expect more customer engagement, more experiments, more everything.

The Real Question

The debate keeps focusing on whether AI can replace people. But the more interesting question is: What will companies do with the extra capacity?

Do they reduce headcount?
Or do they expand what the organization attempts?

History leans in one direction.

Spreadsheets did not eliminate analysts.
CRM did not eliminate salespeople.
Marketing automation did not eliminate marketers.

Each tool made people more productive. Each tool also increased the amount of work companies chose to do.

AI may follow the same path.

The future might not be fewer people. It might be the same people doing far more.

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Now go make an impact!