The a16z Show Anish Acharya: Is SaaS Dead in a World of AI?
578 snips
Feb 12, 2026 
Anish Acharya, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz and former founder/engineer, shares sharp takes on AI’s impact on SaaS. He explores why coding agents lower switching costs and reshape competition. He contrasts incumbents vs startups, debates apps versus foundation models, and warns about agent overhype while outlining new defensibility and UI shifts.
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Software Is Oversold
- Software is oversold; rebuilding core ERP/payroll with AI yields limited savings because IT is only ~8–12% of enterprise spend.
- Firms will instead apply AI to extend core business advantages and to optimize the remaining 90% of spend.
Agents Lower Switching Costs
- Coding agents will dramatically reduce switching costs between incumbent SaaS providers by simplifying integration and migration.
- Lower switching costs increase competition, improving products and innovation across the ecosystem.
Apps Aggregate Specialized Models
- Foundation models are becoming multi-provider and specialized, creating substitution in 80% of cases and niche strengths in 20%.
- That fragmentation increases value for app-layer aggregators that orchestrate models and add feature surfaces.
