The Seat Did Not Die, It Changed Jobs

Seat-based pricing is declining in B2B software as AI disrupts the link between the number of users, product usage, and customer value, while increasing infrastructure costs make traditional SaaS economics less viable. However, seats continue to serve a practical role as a predictable fixed fee for procurement, even as major vendors supplement them with consumption-based credits. Pure usage pricing better reflects delivered work but can create unpredictable revenue and customer bills, particularly for smaller customers or organizations facing sudden usage spikes. As a result, hybrid pricing is becoming the preferred approach despite being harder to explain, combining low-cost seats as access fees with charges based on measurable outcomes such as tickets resolved or documents processed. For this model to work, companies must set consumption limits across organizational, team, and individual levels so customers retain budget control while vendors can monetize AI-driven usage.

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