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In 2026, the AI monetization conversation has shifted quickly from one concern to the next. Early in the year, fears that AI agents would erode software seats helped trigger a selloff of software stocks dubbed the “SaaSpocalypse.” Since then, attention has turned to a different disruption, as AI leaders including Anthropic, OpenAI, and GitHub lean heavily on usage-based pricing to better align revenue with the cost of delivering AI.
It would be easy to conclude that software monetization is shifting wholesale from seats and subscriptions to tokens, credits, and consumption. But look across a broader cross-section of the software industry, and a different picture emerges.
Most software companies aren’t AI-native businesses designing pricing from scratch. They have existing products, customers, contracts, and pricing structures. They’re adding AI to portfolios that may already span dozens of products and multiple monetization models. And they have to balance the economics of AI with something customers still value enormously: predictability.
