Taking Salesforce as an Example, AI is Changing Software “Pricing Models”

Artificial intelligence is disrupting the subscription-based payment model that has underpinned the software industry for more than two decades. Enterprise software giants such as Salesforce are being forced to shift away from charging fixed subscription fees based on the number of users, toward charging based on actual usage or even tangible business outcomes—a transformation that brings both opportunities and uncertainties.

According to technology media outlet The Information on August 30, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff stated during last week’s investor call that the company is now allowing enterprise clients to choose how they pay for its AI product Agentforce, including signing customized contracts, charging based on revenue growth attributed to AI-assisted sales, or billing according to cost savings delivered via automated customer service.

"Customers want different ways to buy and price, which is something I’ve come to realize recently," Benioff said. His remarks reflect the underlying uncertainty of software pricing models in the age of AI.

This shift has already sparked a chain reaction within the industry. According to reports, insiders revealed that OpenAI has started offering certain large clients an option to pay only when AI tasks have been completed in recent months; customer management startups Sierra and Fin (the latter being acquired by Salesforce for $3.6 billion) also adopt a pay-per-completed-task model; and programming assistant Cognition promises up to $10 million in service credits if it fails to deliver engineering results equivalent to the client's payment.

Salesforce’s share price has climbed about 23% since its earnings release last week.

The End of the Subscription Model

Salesforce’s transformation signals a fundamental challenge to the software-as-a-service (SaaS) business model that it helped pioneer.

Twenty-five years ago, Salesforce led the industry in shifting from one-off license purchases to per-seat subscription billing. This approach reduced upfront costs for small and medium-sized businesses, transferred the burden of software upgrades and maintenance to vendors, and ushered in a twenty-year boom for the SaaS sector.

However, the rise of AI is turning this logic on its head. As enterprises increasingly use advanced AI agents such as Anthropic’s Claude to handle complex tasks within apps like Salesforce, employees interact directly with these applications less often—undermining the foundation of the per-user subscription model.

Benioff admits that software pricing is now in a period of great uncertainty, and that Salesforce is following the lead of startups, rather than being the driver of change.

Moving Toward "Outcome-Based Pricing"

The new model Salesforce is exploring closely resembles the longstanding approach used by data analytics software firm Palantir.

Palantir signs highly customized contracts with enterprise customers, combining fixed fees with usage- and outcome-based charges. Benioff noted that this flexible pricing model has already helped Salesforce "land some very large deals" and pointed out that it allows vendors to "achieve extremely high prices" for their products—an assertion that is supported by Palantir’s substantial revenue growth over the past year.

Benioff went on to elaborate his view of "outcome-based pricing":

"We don’t just want to say, ‘We made this many calls, so we charge $2.’ We want to say, ‘We helped you increase your revenue by this amount, so we charge you $2 because we helped you earn $20 or $40.’"

This means Salesforce aims to tie its revenues closely to customers’ business outcomes, not simply to metrics such as tasks completed.

Claudeforce: New Strategies for a New Battlefield

Facing pressure from AI-native competitors like Anthropic, Salesforce last week launched Claudeforce—a service enabling clients to use Claude to complete a wide range of Salesforce-related tasks without having to directly operate these apps.

According to insiders, Salesforce plans to build a new revenue mechanism through Claudeforce: every time a third-party AI accesses data within Salesforce apps, Salesforce stands to profit; and customers must upgrade to a higher subscription tier to enable this feature.

The strategic intention is clear: even if users no longer interact directly with the Salesforce interface, the company can maintain its central position in the AI data ecosystem, turning the risk of user attrition into a new revenue stream.

Attribution Disputes: Potential Pitfalls of the New Model

Reports suggest that outcome-based pricing is attractive in theory, but in practice, it may trigger complex attribution disputes.

Payments provider Stripe has issued guidelines pointing out that sales conversions or other business results "may be due to product changes, marketing campaigns, or seasonal factors" rather than the software itself.

"Unless attribution rules are clearly defined, customers may dispute whether outcomes should be credited to the software vendor," Stripe stated.

This risk is not without precedent. Software monitoring company Splunk experienced a temporary revenue dip during its transition from licensed to subscription models. Analysts believe the outcome of the current pricing model experiment will, to a large extent, determine whether established enterprise software companies like Salesforce can successfully reinvent themselves amid the AI revolution.