AI Agents Threaten Traditional Licensing Model for Salesforce and ServiceNow

Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) and ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW) are facing pressure on their traditional seat-based licensing model due to the rise of AI agents. Parnassus Investments Chief Investment Officer Todd Ahlsten warned that this model is under structural pressure as companies can increase output without adding employees, reducing the need for additional software licenses.

Ahlsten noted that AI tools from companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google's Gemini allow firms to do more work with fewer human users. He stated, 'The seat license model is just going to be under a lot of pressure.'

SaaS vendors are adapting by introducing hybrid pricing models, which layer AI usage or feature-based charges on top of traditional seat pricing. Salesforce and ServiceNow are adding usage-based AI pricing to capture value from digital workers even if human seat growth stalls.