A few days ago, I was filling out a government form using Adobe Acrobat Reader. Nothing complicated. The form had a built-in print button at the bottom of the page, but every time I hovered over it, Acrobat prominently offered me a trial of its AI features to summarize, simplify, or even chat with my document. I didn’t want to chat with my document. I just needed to read and print the form.
AI Is Now Part of the SaaS Price of Admission
That minor annoyance reflects a much larger change in the SaaS industry. Across UCaaS, CCaaS, CRM and collaboration platforms, leading vendors have made AI central to their product roadmaps rather than an optional side feature. Microsoft, Cisco and Zoom, to name a few, are moving beyond meeting summaries and embedding AI agents across applications, collaboration and contact centers.
CCaaS and CRM vendors are doing the same thing. NiCE, Genesys and Five9 have introduced AI-powered customer journeys, agent assist, and conversational intelligence. Salesforce is building Agentforce into CRM, ServiceNow is expanding AI agents and automated workflows, and Google is embedding Gemini across Workspace
AI is changing the economics of SaaS. AI-driven price increases of 20% to 37% are now common at renewal, far above the 3% to 9% annual increases most IT finance teams typically budget for (Tropic, 2026 Software and AI Pricing Trends Report). At the same time, 78% of IT leaders reported unexpected charges tied to consumption-based pricing or AI features during the past year, and 61% of organizations said unplanned SaaS cost increases forced them to cut other projects or initiatives (Zylo, 2026 SaaS Management Index).
Are Many AI Assistants Doing the Same Job?
This level of impact leaves enterprise technology organizations with a serious question at renewal time: Are we paying more because the software became more valuable to us, or because the vendor unilaterally decided that AI makes the software more valuable?
For example, an organization might use Microsoft 365 for productivity, Teams or Zoom for communications, Salesforce for CRM, Docusign for signatures, ServiceNow for workflows and Adobe for documents. Each vendor can now offer an AI assistant, agent, summarization engine or intelligence layer, but how many AI assistants does one employee need? More importantly, how many of them does the enterprise need to pay for?
Which AI Has the Complete Picture?
As AI becomes embedded in every SaaS platform, a more fundamental problem emerges: which AI has the complete picture? Each system may contain accurate information, but only about the part of the business contained within its application and data. Instead of creating one intelligent enterprise, organizations can end up with multiple AI systems operating against separate data silos and potentially producing different versions of reality.
The problem becomes more serious as AI progresses from information summaries to actions. Each system may contain accurate information but only sees the part of the business contained within its application and data. Gartner is already warning about “AI agent sprawl” and predicts that an average Global Fortune 500 enterprise could have more than 150,000 agents in use by 2028. The value of enterprise AI will depend less on how many applications have AI and more on those applications operating with a consistent understanding of the business.
Prior to purchasing a vendor’s AI capability, organizations should understand how it will fit into an enterprise AI architecture. Organizations should not assume that each system will automatically become part of a unified workflow. They should ask, “What information will this AI use, how does it reconcile that information with our other systems, and which source wins when the systems disagree? “
From Seats to Tokens and Credits
AI has created a fundamental change in enterprise software pricing models. Just when CIOs and technology sourcing teams became good at negotiating per-user and per-seat SaaS contracts, AI introduced credits, tokens, actions, conversations and other consumption measures. Costs are harder to predict, and organizations pay more for AI functionality simply because it is embedded in the product, regardless of whether employees need it, use it or generate enough business value to justify the additional expense. Enterprises need to approach AI differently than they approached previous SaaS feature upgrades.
Renewing SaaS Agreements
The first question at renewal should be, “Can we still buy the product without the AI features?” In a few cases, yes. AI may still be a separate SKU, credit package, or optional add-on that can simply be declined. In most cases, no. The vendor has bundled AI into a new product tier and retired the previous SKU. SaaS vendors have made substantial bets on AI as part of their product and growth strategies. From the vendor perspective, AI is the next generation of revenue growth.
A few practical steps can help:
- Separate AI options from the base product. Identify what portion of the price increase is associated with new AI capabilities, even if those capabilities are bundled into the renewal. If the vendor cannot separate the cost, require an explanation of what changed, and why the new tier costs more.
- Measure and understand AI consumption before buying more. Determine how many employees are actually using the AI capabilities and what value they are receiving, then require the vendor to explain exactly how consumption is measured and billed. Tokens, credits, conversations, actions, and other units are not interchangeable. Understand what triggers a charge, whether usage is measured by user or pooled across the organization, when credits expire or reset, and what reporting is available. A consumption model is difficult to manage if you cannot independently determine what is being consumed and by whom.
- Pilot before committing. If the AI capability is new, negotiate a limited pilot before agreeing to a company-wide license or long-term consumption commitment. Define what success means in advance. If the vendor believes the technology will create measurable value, it should be willing to demonstrate it before the customer makes a larger commitment.
- Put limits around consumption pricing. Once you understand how usage is measured, put financial controls around it. Negotiate spending caps, usage alerts, true-ups, or other mechanisms that prevent experimentation or unexpected adoption from turning into an unexpected invoice.
These conversations need to start early. The time to understand the new pricing structure, consumption measurements and usage levels is well before the renewal proposal arrives. The objective should not be to avoid AI. It should be to avoid paying for AI simply because the vendor decided to put it there.
Sometimes I don't need an intelligent assistant. Sometimes I just need the button that lets me print the form.
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