From Per-Seat SaaS Pricing to Consumption-Based Thinking
Per-seat pricing has long dominated SaaS pricing models, treating the number of users as a proxy for value. That logic is eroding quickly as AI agents automate work that previously required human logins. In many modern platforms, a single intelligent agent can draft documents, triage tasks, and generate updates without adding more human seats. The more effective the software, the fewer licenses a customer may need, creating a structural conflict between value delivered and revenue captured. This tension is pushing vendors to explore consumption-based pricing, where enterprise software costs are tied to how intensively features or compute are used. Instead of assuming headcount equates to productivity, software monetization strategies are shifting toward metering transactions, workflows, or AI activity. For CHROs and IT leaders, this marks a pivotal shift: software budgets will increasingly hinge on usage behavior rather than simple license counts.
monday.com’s Seats-Plus-Credits Pivot and What It Signals
monday.com’s latest results showcase both commercial momentum and a strategic pricing shift. The company reported revenue growth of 24% year-over-year, along with a 74% annual increase in enterprise customers spending USD 500K (approx. RM2,300,000) or more. Alongside its new AI Work Platform, monday.com introduced a seats-plus-credits model that quietly links part of its revenue to AI consumption rather than employee headcount. This hybrid design keeps familiar per-seat pricing while layering usage-based AI meters on top, mirroring a broader pattern across SaaS vendors. Research cited in the market shows that many providers adding generative AI either raise per-seat prices or adopt similar hybrid structures, with none fully abandoning seats yet. Still, monday.com’s move is strategically important: it normalizes the idea that a growing share of enterprise software costs should track actual activity and outcomes, not just the number of people logged in.
Healthcare Devices: A Blueprint for Usage-Linked Software Monetization
While SaaS platforms are only beginning to rewire their pricing, healthcare device makers already offer a working model for consumption-based pricing. In imaging, ultrasound, and patient monitoring, embedded software has become central to diagnosis and clinical decision-making. Leaders in this sector increasingly treat software as a commercial product with intentional software monetization strategies rather than a bundled technical extra. Best practices include designing for monetization from day one, building predictive ROI calculators, and, crucially, planning for AI and a consumption-based future. Pricing is tied to actual usage via hybrid models such as consumption-based billing with subscriptions, tiered usage bundles, or pay-as-you-go. Instead of counting seats, manufacturers track how often specific capabilities are used and how much value they generate. This approach better aligns recurring revenue with measurable clinical and operational outcomes, offering a compelling template for enterprise software vendors trying to modernize their own monetization playbooks.
Implications for Enterprise Software Budgets and Procurement
The rise of consumption-based pricing will reshape how enterprises plan and control software spending. Procurement and finance teams, long accustomed to budgeting per seat, must now predict and manage variable usage patterns. This creates immediate challenges, from building new forecasting models to renegotiating contracts that blend fixed and metered components. Yet the upside is significant: when SaaS pricing models link costs directly to utilization and outcomes, organizations can reduce wasteful licenses and bring enterprise software costs closer to real value delivered. For CHROs, fewer seats no longer necessarily signal a smaller digital footprint; AI agents and workflow automation can expand impact without expanding headcount. IT leaders, meanwhile, will need better telemetry on application usage and clearer guardrails for consumption caps. Over time, the procurement conversation is likely to shift away from “How many users?” toward “What business outcomes, at what unit cost, are we buying?”
Proving Value Through Outcome-Linked Consumption Models
At the heart of consumption-based pricing is a promise: customers pay in proportion to the value they receive. For SaaS and device makers alike, that requires robust instrumentation to measure feature adoption, workflow volume, and AI-driven outcomes. In healthcare, vendors increasingly rely on data to demonstrate how diagnostic software improves throughput or accuracy, then align pricing with those gains. monday.com’s AI credits follow a similar logic, tying a slice of revenue to how intensively customers rely on automated capabilities. This structure can make software monetization more resilient in volatile markets by grounding revenue in ongoing usage rather than static license rolls. It also raises the bar for vendors, who must continuously justify their unit economics and prove ROI instead of hiding behind bundled tiers. As consumption-based pricing spreads, the winners will be providers who can clearly connect each incremental unit of use to an incremental business benefit.