SaaS companies make room for AI

SaaS companies make room for AI-first roles as hiring priorities shift

Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing how SaaS companies build, scale and hire. From seed-stage startups such as ScakeKit to growth-stage companies like SuperOps and Nasdaq-listed software firm Freshworks, SaaS companies are restructuring teams and cutting jobs as they adapt to AI-driven software development and operations.

The shift comes as SaaS companies face increasing pressure to improve capital efficiency while continuing to invest in product innovation. Instead of expanding engineering, sales and support teams, founders are using AI to automate repetitive work, streamline operations and redirect hiring towards AI-focused roles.

Hiring is slowing for repetitive roles such as manual quality assurance, customer support and routine sales operations, while demand is rising for AI and machine learning engineers, AI researchers, AI product managers and AI Labs teams.

"There will be roles that might get impacted in this AI-native way of doing work. For example, manual QA can now be done much more automatically using AI, so you might see those roles come down," MoEngage cofounder and CEO Raviteja Dodda told Moneycontrol.

"At the same time, companies like us want more engineers in AI Labs teams. Investments are shifting from roles that are less relevant in an AI-native way of working to AI-focused roles," he added.

The trend is visible even among early-stage startups.

ScakeKit, which builds authentication infrastructure for companies deploying AI agents, said it undertook a "focused team adjustment" involving eight employees in April as it refined its product strategy.

"We are a seed-stage company making deliberate decisions about product focus and team composition," cofounder Satya Devarakonda told Moneycontrol. The company said affected employees received three months' salary and medical coverage as severance.

The restructuring is also visible among growth-stage SaaS firms.

SuperOps recently laid off around 60 employees, nearly 30 percent of its workforce, as part of restructuring to become an AI-first organisation. The company said the move was driven by efficiency rather than financial stress. It is setting up an internal AI council to embed capabilities across its products.

"Right now the most visible disruption is in product development. AI is going to touch every part of how a business operates, how teams are structured, how decisions get made and how value gets delivered. Product development is just where it is showing up already; the rest will follow," SuperOps cofounder and CEO Arvind Parthiban said.

AI is not replacing SaaS but transforming it, he said. "AI allows companies to go back to first principles and ask whether a human is needed at every step. Certain things require human judgment but a lot of work can now be handled by technology," Parthiban said.

The trend has also reached larger software companies. Earlier this year, Freshworks announced plans to reduce its global workforce by 11 percent, or around 500 employees, to consolidate overlapping go-to-market functions, streamline product development and expand the use of AI and automation.

AI is also forcing SaaS companies to rethink pricing models and product strategies.

"The value is shifting from access to outcomes. Customers don't want to pay for 10 seats when one AI workflow can do what those 10 people used to do manually," said Ramesh Ravishankar, cofounder and chief go-to-market officer at Highperformr.ai.

He said established SaaS companies must balance existing revenue-generating products while building AI-native offerings.

"You can't blow up your revenue to chase something unproven. The companies doing it well are building the new product alongside the old one and letting customers migrate when they are ready," Ravishankar said.

Customer expectations are changing just as rapidly, according to Ashish Sinha, founder of NextBigWhat.

"The old SaaS playbook of telling customers that a requested feature is part of the Q4 roadmap is rapidly disappearing. Customers now assume that almost anything can be built in days, not quarters," he said

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