2026
“How AI Agents Reshape Product Strategy, Growth and Value Capture in SaaS Businesses”
Frankfurt School of Finance & Management · Stanford University ecosystem, USA · MBA thesis · Paper in preparation
If a vendor charges per user and its AI agent replaces those users, the vendor earns less as the product gets better. I call this the seat trap.
My thesis asks when AI vendors should move away from per-seat pricing, and what has to be true first.
- Pricing strategy for AI products
- Stanford ecosystem
- Product management
- Product strategy
- SaaS business models
- Agentic AI
- Value capture and monetisation
- Customer and market research
The seat trap, in one slider
Example: one customer with 10 users at €100 per seat per month.
7 people still pay for a seat · the AI agent does 3 people's work
Vendor revenue from this customer, per month
Seat pricing still earns more, but the vendor has already lost €300 a month in seats.
Illustrative prices to show the idea. Thesis results are shared after publication.







