Zendesk raised AI prices to $50 a month, Atlassian stopped charging for it, and Salesforce switched to $2 per action. The speaker argues AI can't survive as a premium add-on. Companies that bundle it free will beat those keeping it behind a paywall.
I have the strongest thoughts in all of planet Earth on this topic. And we're in a transition phase. Okay, so I'll tell you some thoughts and tie it to some of the speakers today. I think six months ago, everyone was like, wow, well, AI is so expensive, I have to charge $2 every time someone clicks. Okay, yes, bleeding edge models are expensive, but the rest of it's so cheap. It's so cheap, you don't have to charge $2 per click. Okay, so there was a. There was a certain fear of costs maybe a year ago, Right? And then a year ago, that started to bleed into greed. Maybe six months ago, hey, maybe I can triple my price for AI, Right? So I talked about how impressed I am with Zendesk. Right? I'm also unimpressed with Zendesk. You know why? They want 50 bucks more a month for AI. Zendesk used to be 15 bucks a month. Now it's more than they want 50. What did Atlassian say last week? We're not charging for AI anymore. We're not charging anymore. Salesforce went out. I just did a great deep dive with Marc Benioff. The best. Right? They went out with Agent force. It was $2 not per resolution, just $2 per action to click in Agent Force. Agent Force is working. It's working for the same reason all support and field is working. It's working. As near as any Wall street analysts can tell, they can't really charge for it. It's being bundled in. Okay, thank you. So that's the tack, the strategic answer. If you listen to everybody, a lot of folks want to charge for it, but it is. It is the core. AI is the core. So stop charging for it if you're not sure today, don't charge for it. Give as much of it away as you can. If the market then lets you charge more for it, great. But, like, if you're charging 50 bucks a month for your AI add on and your competitor builds it in because it's core, you will lose. You will lose. You will lose. So that's gonna happen no matter what works today. You're gonna lose when the competitor includes it as core to their product. So those are my thoughts.
