AI’s Biggest Winners And Losers Are Emerging<\/p>\n
According to Citrini Research, AI is setting off a powerful feedback loop. Companies deploy AI to cut labor costs. They then reinvest those savings into more AI, accelerating the very disruption that forced the cuts in the first place. <\/p>\n
“AI capability improves, payroll shrinks, spending softens\u2026 capability improves,” a recent Citrini report explains, describing “a feedback loop with no natural brake.\u201d<\/p>\n
This dynamic is already reshaping the economics of enterprise software.<\/p>\n
AI Is Starting To Break SaaS Pricing Power<\/p>\n
For years, SaaS companies thrived on recurring revenue and high switching costs. But agentic coding tools like Claude and Codex are rapidly eroding those advantages. A \u201ccompetent developer\u201d who works with Claude Code or Codex could replicate the core functionality of a mid-market SaaS product in weeks.<\/p>\n
That shift is fundamentally changing enterprise negotiations. In one example cited in their report, a Fortune 500 company renewed a major SaaS contract at a 30% discount after considering replacing the vendor with internally developed AI tools.<\/p>\n
Nvidia And The AI Infrastructure Complex Keep Winning<\/p>\n
Ironically, the companies enabling this disruption continue to benefit enormously.<\/p>\n
Even as AI threatens large parts of the software sector, the firm notes that “NVDA was still posting record revenues” and AI infrastructure providers continued operating at near-full capacity.<\/p>\n
That divergence highlights a fundamental shift in market leadership. As AI reduces the value of human labor and software intermediaries, the companies providing the underlying compute may capture a growing share of economic gains. All this while SaaS companies face the unintended consequences of the technology they helped popularize.<\/p>\n
Image: Shutterstock<\/p>\n