There’s a growing narrative that AI will replace SaaS.
If AI can build anything, why pay for software subscriptions?
The logic sounds compelling.
It’s also flawed.
Software is a tool.
If you were an advanced AI system, would you reinvent a calculator every time you needed one?
Or would you use the calculator that already exists?
AI is learning to use tools for the same reason humans do.
Because tools encode explicit knowledge.
A CRM encodes workflow.
An ERP encodes accounting rules.
A design tool encodes physics and constraints.
These are not just interfaces.
They are accumulated domain intelligence.
AI doesn’t eliminate tools.
It amplifies their importance.
The companies that thrive won’t be those replaced by AI.
They’ll be the ones whose tools become native extensions of AI workflows.
The real shift is not SaaS disappearing.
It’s SaaS becoming programmable by intelligence.
And that’s a very different story.