Markets
A $5B Fund Manager Went on Bloomberg Tech to Say the Seat License Is Under Pressure, and ServiceNow Confirmed Half Its Net New Revenue Already Isn't Seats
Parnassus CIO Todd Ahlsten argued Monday that Salesforce and ServiceNow face structural pressure because AI lets customers grow output without hiring the employees who used to need licenses. The counter-evidence both companies offer is real: Salesforce says its ten heaviest Agentforce users grew total spend 1.5x year over year and that Sales and Service still showed seat growth on the May call, while ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott told the WSJ roughly half of net new business revenue now comes from non-seat models. Bain's analysis of 30-plus SaaS vendors shipping generative AI found about 65% went hybrid, layering usage or feature charges on top of seats rather than replacing them.
↳ Follow the thread