Newsletter · short read

AI Is Driving A Shift Towards Outcome-Based Pricing

Ivan Makarov, James da Costa and Bobby Pinero · Andreessen Horowitz Free Advanced

The clearest statement of why per-seat pricing breaks when software does the work, with the support agent example (115 dollars per seat per month becomes a price per resolved ticket) and the variable cost problem underneath AI products.

  • When AI resolves the ticket, Zendesk's 115 dollars per seat per month for support agents stops making sense.
  • Three shifts: software becomes labor, the seat stops being the atomic unit, and model API costs make COGS variable.
  • Decagon sells both per conversation (usage) and per resolution (outcome) as parallel options.
  • AI-native companies price on usage or outcomes while incumbents mostly hold per-seat or bundled models.
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The question it answers

  1. AI is breaking per-seat pricing. What are the best companies charging for now?

Read with it

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  4. Video · 28 min Pricing Is Product: Field Notes From the Frontier of AI Monetization | Chargebee Beelieve '26 | SF Chargebee Beelieve panel
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