Microsoft exec suggests AI agents will need to buy software licenses, just like employees
www.businessinsider.com
Are AI agents employees or tools? A Microsoft exec suggested they're new paid "seats," a shift that could reshape SaaS pricing — and spark pushback.

Buried in the story was a deceptively simple question: does your AI agent count as an employee?

At a recent conference, Microsoft executive Rajesh Jha floated a provocative idea. In a future where companies deploy fleets of AI agents, those agents may need their own identities — logins, inboxes, and even seats inside software systems. If so, AI wouldn’t shrink software revenue. It could expand it.

  • utopiah@lemmy.worldEnglish
    371·
    2 days ago

    That’s the beauty of totally arbitrary restrictions, you can change them as you want.

    Pay by seat? Pay by client? Pay by byte of data stored? Pay by backup location?

    … pay by moonphase? Pay by AI personality? Pay by virtual AI seat?

    Such BS but why wouldn’t Microslop extend its business model. It worked well so far. It’s not about software, or datacenter, or AI, it’s just about entrenchment.

    • tehfishman@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      19 hours ago

      It’s also a billing strategy that only works in a monopoly situation. If there was healthy competition and no vendor lock-in for the office suite of tools, Microsoft wouldn’t be able to even float this as an idea.