4 out of 5 software program consumers use LLMs to analysis merchandise, SaaS firms are dealing with valuation challenges, and your board desires solutions even sooner.
Rather a lot went down on the SaaStr Annual + AI Summit 2025 throughout 200+ tactical classes from over 300 industry-leading audio system, in addition to C-suite summits. Should you missed it (and even in case you didn’t!), these handpicked scorching takes offers you a direct line to the methods shaping SaaS at scale.
Whether or not you are navigating pipeline stress or exploring the subsequent part of AI integration — dig in and reduce via the noise in SaaS that can assist you reply powerful questions on the desk.
CMOs, AI, and the boardroom: The manager abstract
CMOs are remodeling from model stewards to enterprise strategists. They’re anticipated to drive measurable enterprise outcomes, combine AI throughout the stack with out disrupting workflows, and lead cross-functional alignment on governance and innovation.
There’s a transparent shift from experimentation to AI optimization, enablement, and accountability, all below growing board and CEO scrutiny.
1. AI is changing complete layers of the advertising contractor ecosystem. SaaStr’s advertising spend on Upwork dropped from $188K in 2023 to $0 in 2025, changed nearly completely by $200 price of AI instruments.
2. The AI stack is the brand new advertising finances query. “What’s your AI stack?” has overtaken “What’s your advertising finances?” because the #1 query amongst advertising leaders.
3. Holding distributors accountable for AI capabilities is now desk stakes. CMOs are much less targeted on including instruments and extra targeted on demanding AI-driven effectivity from present distributors.
4. AI is driving real-time purchaser insights and go-to-market (GTM) alignment. CMOs are constructing AI brokers modeled on purchaser personas to simulate responses and quickly validate messaging, content material, and GTM technique.
5. In extremely regulated industries, hallucination danger shapes AI adoption. CMOs in authorized tech and cybersecurity should prioritize accuracy and compliance, utilizing LLMs for enablement and aggressive intel, not simply content material era.
6. About half-hour a day in an LLM can remodel your GTM velocity. Allocating devoted time for experimentation yields fast breakthroughs, from gross sales enablement to content material creation to market messaging.
7. AI fluency is now a management crucial. With out foundational AI coaching throughout groups, even one of the best instruments gained’t ship ROI. Leaders should drive training and tradition change, not simply device adoption.
8. Knowledge high quality is your AI technique’s make-or-break issue. AI gained’t repair damaged knowledge. Structured, well-maintained inner and exterior knowledge is the bedrock for scaling AI personalization, insights, and automation.
9. AI brokers are reshaping org charts. Ahead-thinking groups are already working with AI brokers as “digital staff members,” offloading executional duties and releasing people to deal with creativity, technique, and innovation.
10. The shift from “attempt every little thing” to “show influence quick.” Preliminary AI exploration has shifted to cautious, managed integration targeted on ROI and compliance.
11. Advertising and marketing is not serving the enterprise (it’s main it). CMOs are aligning advertising with all 27 steps of the client journey and talking the CEO’s language, pipeline, and outcomes.
12. AI is a forcing operate for cross-functional collaboration. It’s breaking down silos between advertising, safety, authorized, and IT, particularly in extremely regulated or security-led environments.
13. The hype is over — now comes the training and recalibration. Boards count on 10x ROI, however CMOs should mood expectations and construct maturity incrementally.
14. Quick-term cycles are killing long-term technique. Tech and shopping for cycles have compressed from years to quarters. This volatility makes long-term planning tough, requiring CMOs to play offense and protection concurrently. To stay viable, leaders should rethink their complete GTM construction, from ICP to messaging to staff design.
15. Disrupt your self, or another person will. AI is not only a device; it’s a tectonic shift. If your organization isn’t “AI-first,” it will likely be disrupted. CMOs should lead situation planning for AI disruption and discover monetization, pricing, and product methods that future-proof the enterprise.
“Should you’re not asking the right way to disrupt your self, another person is already doing it for you.”
Sydney Sloan
CMO of G2
16. Outbound and content material as we all know them are dying. Channels like chilly outbound and Search engine optimization-driven content material have gotten much less efficient as AI solutions queries immediately. Hybrid fashions: AI + human are the short-term repair, however longer-term trust-based channels (model, PR, social proof) are resurging as sturdy methods.
17. We’re advertising to the unsuitable viewers. As LLMs (e.g., ChatGPT) more and more make or affect shopping for choices, advertising should shift from solely concentrating on people to “coaching” the AI. In case your campaigns do not affect AI fashions, you develop into invisible to the trendy purchaser.
“We’re advertising to the unsuitable agent. We’re nonetheless concentrating on people, however AI is making the shopping for choices.”
Guillaume “𝑮” Cabane
Co-founder of Hypergrowth Companions
Your subsequent transfer
As a CMO, you aren’t only a advertising chief; you’re now an AI transformation chief below broad scrutiny. Time to deal with AI like a enterprise system, not only a shiny device.
AI, gross sales, and GTM: The laborious reset
The period of promoting instruments is over. The enterprise software program mannequin is essentially shifting from static instruments that require human operators to dynamic platforms embedded with digital labor. Leaders like Aaron Levie, CEO at Field, and SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin have some hard-hitting actuality checks.
18. AI brokers aren’t simply enhancing consumer expertise. They’re redefining the labor mannequin by automating information work at scale, unlocking completely new addressable markets.
19. AI brokers will more and more ship outcomes, not simply capabilities. They’re forcing a rethink in pricing, GTM, and buyer success methods. Enterprises gained’t purchase software program to help inner groups — they’ll rent software program embedded with its personal digital workforce.
“What an attention-grabbing time to be in software program … It’s not nearly promoting instruments. We’re bringing the method itself by way of digital labor to the group.”
Aaron Levie
CEO of Field
20. The AI adoption curve is exponentially sooner than cloud. In contrast to the cloud transformation, which unfolded over a decade, the AI shift is going on in below two years. Enterprises that do not act now danger shedding relevance and even their market place inside 24 months.
21. New expertise will pressure a workflow revolution. The incoming era of staff raised on AI instruments gained’t settle for outdated, gradual processes. They’ll ask, “Why are we doing this manually when the mannequin already has the reply?”
Your subsequent transfer
AI is collapsing GTM timelines and wiping out guide workflows. Gross sales and advertising should co-own enablement, experimentation, and tech fluency. Alliances will win you enterprise outcomes.
Remodel your AI advertising technique.
Be a part of {industry} leaders at G2’s free AI in Motion Roadshow for actionable insights and confirmed methods to reimagine your funnel. Register now
The G2 Take: AI has redesigned purchaser habits
G2 CMO Sydney Sloan and VP of Analysis Insights Tim Sanders debuted the 2025 G2 Purchaser Conduct Report, which is a thoughts map of how your clients are discovering, shortlisting, and shopping for software program.
22. AI is disrupting SaaS GTM fundamentals sooner than anticipated. “The perfect practices in 2024 will probably be the worst practices in 2026.” Generative AI is not simply a part of the client journey; it is driving it from discovery to resolution. Conventional Search engine optimization, vendor web sites, and peer suggestions are quickly shedding floor to LLM-driven, one-shot shortlist creation.
23. LLMs are actually the entrance door to B2B shopping for, not Google. 4 in 5 B2B consumers now begin their analysis with a generative AI device, not a search engine. This shift is most pronounced in enterprises, the place effectivity calls for are highest.
24. Shortlists are being generated by prompts, not processes. Patrons are skipping multi-step evaluations in favor of asking chatbots for his or her prime three vendor picks. In case your model doesn’t floor in AI outcomes, you’re already shedding the deal.
25. A brand new knowledge hierarchy is rising, and GenAI is on prime. First-party (your website) is now the weakest sign. GenAI outputs and software program assessment websites (like G2) dominate the alerts that form choices.
Supply: G2 Purchaser Conduct Report 2025
Your subsequent transfer
Your ICP doesn’t act prefer it used to. Get your G2 sport on. You’re not pitching to the CMO; you’re pitching to ChatGPT or an AI agent that’s surfacing community-driven content material. Concentrate on constructing clear knowledge, quick suggestions loops, persona-based brokers, assessment methods, and GTM fashions that adapt in actual time.
Supply: G2 Purchaser Conduct Report 2025
Supply: SaaStr
The SaaS-y actuality: Your purchaser is probably going a bot
CAC is rising, churn is expensive, and SaaS progress is slowing. However AI isn’t simply serving to groups scale — it’s changing them. From GTM methods to retention playbooks, Firebolt’s President Hemanth Vedagarbha reveals how AI-first organizations are driving progress and rewriting the foundations of SaaS in 2025
26. AI-led progress is changing product-led and sales-led fashions. The normal GTM motions are breaking down below the burden of rising CAC, churn, and slowing SaaS progress. The subsequent progress engine is AI-first, particularly agentic AI driving every little thing from lead era to buyer success.
27. Your purchaser isn’t human anymore, and your vendor gained’t be both. Shopping for choices are more and more made by AI brokers evaluating your pitch earlier than it ever reaches a human. In case your GTM technique nonetheless depends on chilly calls and human SDRs, you’re shortly falling behind.
SaaS progress is slowing dramatically
- Median progress dropped from 36% in 2021 to 16.5% in 2025
- CAC is up 55% in 5 years
- Churn prices the SaaS {industry} quantity to $136B yearly
- Valuations are down from ~27x to six–7x
28. AI brokers are quietly remodeling the org chart. The CTO and CISO have gotten extra essential than the chief folks officer as AI brokers substitute human roles. One firm cited has solely two world human buyer success reps; the remaining are brokers.
29. Predictive AI is a retention sport changer. Predictive churn fashions can reduce churn by 22%. AI-generated QBRs save 80% of prep time. In-product subsequent finest motion engines are redefining post-sale engagement.
“In case your purchaser isn’t human, neither is your vendor. Gone are the times you’re constructing a pitch for a CMO. You’re pitching to ChatGPT.”
Hemanth Vedagarbha
President of Firebolt
Your subsequent transfer
In case your content material isn’t coaching LLMs, you’re invisible. Future-proof and optimize for AI as a lot as you do for folks. Constructing AI into your merchandise for the proper causes will fetch you huge bucks from software program consumers. Fail to take action and churn will proceed.
Supply: G2 Purchaser Conduct Report 2025
AI disrupted advertising and known as it a Tuesday
What as soon as took years now takes months, and entrepreneurs are rethinking every little thing from channel technique to staff construction simply to maintain up. Guillaume “𝑮” Cabane, former Ramp CMO and at present co-founder of Hypergrowth Companions, dissects the state of selling in 2025.
30. AI has collapsed the advertising innovation cycle. What was once 2–3 12 months expertise and tactic cycles are actually quarterly. This pace is breaking conventional advertising fashions, from tech shopping for to staff design.
31. Alternative paralysis is the brand new norm. CMOs face not possible tech-buying choices: legacy distributors are too gradual; startups are too risky. No matter you select immediately could also be out of date subsequent quarter.
32. AI is killing channels, not simply ways. Over-automation (e.g., mass AI-generated outbound emails) is creating channel fatigue and belief erosion. E-mail and Search engine optimization aren’t simply saturated — they’re turning into unusable.
33. Totally automated GTM workflows don’t win — hybrid does. The highest-performing groups use human-in-the-loop techniques: AI scrapes and scores knowledge; people (e.g., SDRs) craft high-volume, micro-personalized campaigns. Hybrid outperforms pure automation and pure human execution.
34. Pace and modularity are technique, not ops. Corporations like Ramp run 200+ experiments per quarter, with orgs break up between progress (execution + automation + product) and advertising (model + technique). This architectural agility is crucial in a post-LLM world.
Your subsequent transfer
Advertising and marketing groups should prioritize modularity, AI fluency, and hybrid workflows. Model-led methods are resurging as AI noise rises.
The moats of SaaS
AI is reshaping what qualifies as a strategic enterprise asset. The power to show huge, legacy knowledge into enterprise worth by way of AI brokers is shortly turning into a defining aggressive edge.
35. Proprietary, good knowledge is the brand new moat (in case you can activate it). Winners are constructing inner knowledge techniques to seed AI workflows. Assume structured name knowledge, scraped market alerts, and first-party insights powering each content material and outbound at scale.
36. Moats are fragile within the AI period. AI isn’t simply strengthening incumbents, it’s additionally democratizing capabilities. A thousand AI-powered startups can now problem enterprise software program giants by providing context-aware, data-connected, conversational interfaces.
37. Open ecosystems are the sticky moats of the long run. AI-connected environments (MCPs, APIs) don’t erode moats — they reinforce them by embedding your product into extra workflows and growing the worth of your knowledge flywheel.
Your subsequent transfer
Defensibility comes from clear knowledge, proprietary perception, and adaptive organizations that may harness their moats. Should you’re counting on previous tech or channels from 2024, you’re constructing on sand.
Subsequent steps for SaaS leaders
We’re positive that you just’re overwhelmed. In any case, that is three days’ price of insights packed into one good learn.
How about beginning with this guidelines for now? Bookmark this text and are available again for specifics later.
- Audit your AI stack: If it doesn’t scale back price, enhance perception, or enhance pace, it’s shelfware.
- Market to machines, not simply people: Your model should present up in LLM outputs or danger irrelevance.
- Prepare your groups: Fluency is extra priceless than tooling.
- Rewire GTM round outcomes: The client isn’t ready on your pitch; they’ve already learn the AI-generated shortlist.
- Activate your knowledge: Knowledge with out construction is simply noise. Moats solely work in case your AI can entry and act on knowledge.
It’s time to rewire your group. Begin with AI situation planning, role-specific training, and realigning your GTM engine to outlive quarterly disruption.
AI is all over the place and ‘All the time Included’, influencing the world, your buyer, and your product inside-out. In case your purchaser is a bot, what’s your GTM technique? Keep forward of the curve with G2’s industry-leading protection. Subscribe to the G2 Tea e-newsletter immediately.
Edited by Jigmee Bhutia
