In a recent video titled "The FUTURE of Software Pricing" from the channel "AI, SaaS & Agentic Pricing with Monetizely," Ajit Ghuman, founder of Monetizely, discusses how the traditional approach to pricing software and services is rapidly evolving. Once considered a technical domain requiring statistical expertise and infrequent updates, pricing is now transforming into an agile, operational function that requires continuous adjustment to keep pace with market changes.
The Problem with Traditional Pricing Approaches
The traditional approach to software pricing has long been characterized by infrequent, consultant-led projects that produce static pricing models. As Ghuman points out, this methodology no longer suits the pace of today's business environment:
"Historically, pricing has been cast away as this technical domain where these statistical people with more statistical knowledge will come and give you this fancy smancy statistics doing Van Western DARP analysis, conjoint analysis and tell you here is how much people are willing to pay."
The problem is that these traditional pricing exercises typically occur too infrequently to capture shifting market dynamics. Companies often conduct pricing reviews only once every two years, while their positioning and target customer segments might change much more frequently.
"Your positioning changes every other month. And AI is making sure that the industry is evolving at such a fast clip that you're not going to be able to do one survey every six months, which you're anyway not doing. You're doing it once in two years."
Why Pricing Must Become an Agile Function
The accelerating pace of change in market conditions, customer segments, and competitive positioning demands a more responsive approach to pricing. Ghuman emphasizes that pricing can no longer remain a strategy "that sat on a shelf or was done once in two years."
Instead, he advocates for pricing to become an operational function managed by product management or marketing teams, with regular updates that match product release cycles:
"Pricing becomes similar to launching code. Pricing becomes part of the product management cycle, not something that happens every once in two years."
This transition requires a fundamental mindset shift for executives accustomed to viewing pricing as a periodic strategic exercise rather than an ongoing operational activity.
How AI is Enabling Agile Pricing
The emergence of sophisticated AI tools is making this transition to agile pricing both feasible and necessary. Ghuman highlights several ways AI is transforming pricing operations:
- Automated dashboard creation: AI can generate repeatable dashboards that provide real-time insights into business performance metrics relevant to pricing decisions.
- Accelerated data analysis: What once took weeks of manual analysis can now be automated:
"AI is already going to automate a lot of the data analysis that would otherwise take you weeks to do, and with just a couple of functions or if you just do that work once, then that analysis is on tap and can be presented to the executives very easily."
- Rapid competitive research: Competitive intelligence gathering has been compressed from weeks to hours:
"Competitive research, you can spin up a competitive research agent which comes back in an hour. Something that used to take two to three days or even maybe one to two weeks for you to do, this changes the game, right?"
- AI co-pilots for analysis: Reducing the need for extensive manual spreadsheet work.
The Compound Effect of Agile Pricing
Perhaps the most compelling reason for executives to embrace agile pricing is the potential for significant revenue impact through compounding gains. Ghuman points to the substantial opportunity cost of maintaining static pricing:
"Think about the compounded effect. That 10 to 20% that you were leaving on the table. Now you're going to capture that every year. Think of the compounded value of that 10 to 20% in revenue over the next 10 years. Companies that would have made middling performance and let's say went up to 10 million ARR in the same amount of time that company can go to 25 million ARR with just compounded pricing."
This perspective reframes pricing from a periodic task to a continuous revenue optimization opportunity that compounds over time.
Moving Toward Pricing as a Service
Monetizely is building AI tools to support this new paradigm, offering survey technology, analysis capabilities, and reports that connect directly to CRM systems to accelerate pricing operations. However, Ghuman emphasizes that his message extends beyond promoting his company's solution:
"This video is not me pitching to you. This video is me saying that the time has come for pricing to be a service. Otherwise, you forego that 10 to 20% on the table in an economy that's bad."
Conclusion: Embracing the Future of Pricing
The future of pricing is clear: it must become an ongoing, agile function supported by AI to capture maximum value. Companies that continue to treat pricing as a periodic exercise will increasingly find themselves at a competitive disadvantage, leaving significant revenue potential unrealized.
As Ghuman concludes, "The future of pricing is to use AI to be more agile. And that's pretty soon you're going to see the industry move in this direction."
For SaaS executives, this transition represents both a challenge and an opportunity. Those who successfully transform pricing into an agile, AI-enhanced function stand to realize compounding revenue benefits that could dramatically accelerate their growth trajectories in the years ahead.