AI Agents are the new SaaS
Summary
AI agents represent a larger market opportunity than SaaS because they sell labor (a multi-trillion dollar market) rather than tools. The winning playbook: find workflows with "a paycheck attached," solve repetitive jobs better than junior employees, and package them as outsourced services that happen hourly or daily.
Key Takeaways
- Shift mental model from "tool a team uses" to "job your team no longer does." Examples: Slang AI handles restaurant reservations 24/7; SameDay sells AI dispatchers for home services. Success metric: cheaper than headcount, faster than agencies, better than junior employees.
- Ideal agent workflows have five traits: (1) happen hourly/daily, (2) clear finish line, (3) touch existing software (Gmail, Slack, Shopify, HubSpot), (4) learnable edge cases (sweet spot between repetitive work and judgment), (5) buyer feels the loss (missed calls, slow replies, dropped leads).
- Start with niche selection: pick one industry, list 20 jobs people complain about, score each on frequency, clear outcomes, software integration, edge case complexity, and financial impact. Examples: roofers (missed calls, financing questions), med spas (lead qualification), Shopify brands (returns, wholesale follow-ups).
- Total addressable market for agents is larger than SaaS because you're selling labor, which is a multi-trillion dollar market. This explains why agents generate more value creation potential than traditional software licensing models.
- Avoid workflows that are either too basic (pure automation via Zapier) or require pure human judgment (first version will break). Target the sweet spot: repetitive work with enough complexity that AI can meaningfully assist and learn edge cases.
Related topics
Transcript Excerpt
Okay, I'll say it. Building agents is the new SAS. I mean, we saw billions of dollars of value creation during the SAS era. People, founders, 21 years old, 24 years old, you name it, come up with SAS ideas that changed their lives. Of course, not everyone was successful, but this is a new wave that's happening. And [music] I want you to understand what this wave is, how you can take advantage of it, how you can build startups in this space. And in this episode, I'm basically going to clearly explain this entire agents is the new SAS opportunity. By the end of this, you're going to understand the playbook. You're going to understand how to find the niche. You're going to understand how to pick the workflow, how to, you know, build your first agent, how to prove it works, how you can package…