Forget SaaS: The future is Services as Software, thanks to AI

For at least two decades, Software as a Service — aka, SaaS — has been at the center of the technology universe, with applications fully accessible via the internet. Now, artificial intelligence is turning this arrangement on its head, leveraging applications autonomously to deliver services. They’re calling it “Services as Software.”

AI is creating this new world for technology professionals and their business counterparts. “Historically, businesses bought software and hired human professionals to operate it,” wrote Frank Diana, Tata Consultancy Services futurist, in a recent post. “AI is flipping that model. Increasingly, businesses will design their processes around AI from the start — not as an add-on, but as the default worker. This shift will impact nearly every function.”

Also: Want to win in the age of AI? You can either build it or build your business with it

An HFS survey finds that 60% of 1,000 enterprises surveyed are already looking to procure services as technology offerings. The same amount “plan to replace some or all of their professional services with some form of AI within the next three to five years.”

Similar trends are in play as routine IT maintenance, HR, procurement, accounting, and customer service work “are becoming much easier to replicate in advancing gen AI and agentic software, supported by public and private cloud capabilities to secure and scale transaction volumes,” stated HFS authors Saurabh Gupta and Phil Fersht.  

What once required teams of specialists “is increasingly being handled by AI-powered systems capable of executing tasks autonomously,” Diana said. “This transformation isn’t just about automation — it’s about redefining how businesses consume and deliver services. The emerging model marks a profound departure from the past: software is no longer a tool for human workers; in many cases, it is the worker.”

This heralds impending changes in tech professionals’ roles. “SaaS models primarily revolved around cloud-hosted applications,” Diana told ZDNET. Services as Software “incorporates intelligent technologies such as AI, digital twins, predictive analytics, and autonomous systems, requiring professionals to pivot from infrastructure management to the orchestration of dynamic, adaptive services.”

This transition “underscores the critical need for professionals to realign their skillsets — prioritizing AI literacy, strategic thinking, and human-machine synergy,” Diana continued. “Furthermore, adapting to new career paths focused on orchestrating integrated service ecosystems and enhancing cross-functional collaboration will be essential.”

To prepare for this shift, Diana urged technology professionals to “embrace continuous learning, deepen their proficiency in AI and automation, and sharpen soft skills such as communication and problem-solving.” Doing so will help tech professionals “position themselves as strategic enablers of business outcomes rather than merely technical facilitators.”

Also: AI software startups set to take over $12 trillion US services industry

Despite all the automation, human expertise remains essential, Diana emphasized. For example, oversight and ethics are essential, as “AI requires human governance to ensure fairness, compliance, and security.” In addition, it’s important to remember that while AI “can process data, humans will provide context, vision, and leadership.”

Gupta and Fersht also pointed to the challenges technology and business professionals face as services and software converge. “Services and software people come from different worlds and speak different languages, but now these need to come together in a way we can all understand and develop,” they noted. “We can’t simply buy shiny new S-a-S solutions and plug them in like we did with an ERP solution. This is where we need to define real business value, which can be delivered by AI technology and price according to that value and the desired outcomes we expect.”

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