AI Agents Trigger "SaaSpocalypse" as Per-Seat SaaS Model Faces Structural Collapse

Summary

The software industry is in the midst of what analysts have dubbed the "SaaSpocalypse" — a structural valuation collapse that has erased nearly $2 trillion in market capitalization from the SaaS sector in early 2026. The trigger was the simultaneous launch of Anthropic's Claude Cowork (with vertical plugins for legal and finance) and OpenAI's Project Operator, which allows AI to navigate any software interface and execute multi-step business workflows autonomously. Unlike prior AI copilots that