Will AI eliminate traditional SaaS software companies over the next few years?

Question

Accepted Answer

No, SaaS won’t disappear in 2–3 years. But a lot of weak SaaS companies will.

AI won’t eliminate the need to solve problems. It will eliminate the value of solving easy, generic problems with a thin software wrapper. If anyone can build an app from a prompt, then the app itself is no longer the moat.

What still matters? Proprietary data, customer trust, workflow integration, distribution, brand, compliance, and real insight into a specific customer pain point.

So for companies like Ellipsend, Lilli, and Wisen, the question is not “Can AI build what we build?” Of course it can, or soon will. The question is: “Will customers still choose us if the software to access what we have becomes ubiquitous?”

On the bigger issue: I think you’re right to worry about wealth concentration and the hollowing out of average knowledge work. AI is coming hard for mediocre copy, code, analysis, and outreach. That transition will be painful.

But I don’t think upward mobility disappears. I think it shifts. The people who win will be the ones with judgment, taste, trust, adaptability, and deep customer understanding. In every tech wave, the scarce thing changes.

Pthe scarce thing is not building software. It’s knowing what to build, for whom, why it matters, and how to earn trust around it.

That’s bad news for feature companies. Great news for real businesses.