AI Agents Are Better Than SaaS

Exploring the tectonic shift away from the agent economy (+ tools)

If you open up literally any predictions for 2025 focused on technology, you'll see a big bet on AI agents. Creators, entrepreneurs, enterprises, and investors are thinking about this niche. Integration costs are estimated at $1T (!) for the next couple of years.

But few are specifying what the next tectonic shift will look like.

So today, we will:

• Discuss what AI agents are impacting SaaS and traditional businesses

• Who qualifies as the next decacorn (a startup with a valuation over $10B)

• Is there room for newcomers who want to join the race?

• Look at tools for building & improving AI agents

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How It Works

Analyzing the prospects for AI agents, venture capital firm Felicis concluded that the new industry will hit SaaS companies hard. To show this more concretely, the investors divided the products into three categories:

• Horizontal - AI sold horizontally to in-house teams at enterprises

• Vertical - A specific AI for one industry

• Consumer - AI as a full-stack service for the public

As you can see from the image above, Felicis suggests that the most attractive and in-demand area will be horizontal agents. In sales/SDRs alone, the number of employees affected by AI will soon exceed 5.7M (more than all vertical niches together).

So unless you have a unique killer app, it's probably worth targeting the top of these lists. Even if there is more competition, this space has too much demand.

The best entry points into the agent industry are:

• Sales

• Customer Service

• Legal

• Real Estate

Now, let's examine a few relevant cases (all claiming a huge piece of the pie), compare them with familiar businesses, and evaluate the current results.

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AI Agents in Sales

11x is one of the best examples of how AI works in sales. Founded in 2022 by Hasan Sukkar in London (later HQ moved to San Francisco), the company develops AI-powered sales development bots. These bots are designed to streamline Go-to-Market (GTM) operations, thereby reducing operational inefficiencies and costs associated with traditional sales processes.

Right now, 11x offers two “digital workers.” The first, Alice, is an AI SDR responsible for production, research, and customer acquisition. It can ingest both first- and third-party data to find, engage, and qualify prospects. Alice reportedly achieves a response rate three times higher than that of human SDRs

The second is Jordan, an AI phone sales representative who speaks over 30 languages and can handle inbound and outbound conversations with prospective human buyers.

In 2025, 11x plans to launch 25 agents, including bots for talent acquisition and human resources.

Of course, 11x is following Salesforce in its work. And it's not afraid to criticize the giant with a traditional model. 11x says the software products that make us more efficient and productive have hit a ceiling. So, the first thing businesses look at when they want to scale is automation, and 11x provides the necessary foundation.

It's not just us who think so, but the startup's customers. 11x is the highest valued ($350M) and fastest-growing company in its field. In September 2024, founder Hasan Sukkar said his company's ARR is approaching $10M.

To learn more about AI + sales, check this out:

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