I’m noticing a critical trend in SaaS that will determine winners and losers in the next 18 months: the AI Slow Roll. This manifests as VPs of Engineering “still evaluating” tools like Windsurf and Cursor, Product leaders dismissing AI over “hallucination” concerns, and CROs insisting customers prefer human interaction over AI. Let me be clear: if you don’t move fast, your business will decline. Investors across B2B and SaaS see that companies not aggressively adopting AI are facing slowed growth, higher churn, or losing deals to AI-forward competitors. The threat is real and accelerating. Ask yourself— is your team adapting fast enough?If not, you risk losing. This might sound dramatic, but recent months have shown this change is inevitable and rapid. Leading engineering teams are automating 30-50% of code production with AI, releasing far more features. Elite companies have transformed operations: - Top tech firms automate 50% of code production. - Conservative enterprises like Salesforce hit 20% automation. - HubSpot can’t deploy all the new features it builds due to volume. The divide between AI-native and AI-hesitant firms grows weekly. Scaled AI use delivers 30-40% engineering productivity gains and boosts customer satisfaction when applied to support—and sales, marketing, and success are rapidly catching up. “Hallucinations” are often just excuses to avoid action. Companies seriously deploying AI address this by training models, fine-tuning, handling exceptions, and implementing human escalation—starting with non-critical use cases. Yes, regulated industries add complexity, but even then, typical human error often exceeds AI mistakes. Your competitors are iterating toward excellence now; don’t get stuck in endless planning. AI will decimate mediocre go-to-market teams, especially SMB sales and average customer success teams. Consider the reality: - AEs often take over 24 hours to follow up hot leads, occasionally sending a generic Calendly link. - SDR outreach is frequently template-heavy and generic. - CSMs come unprepared to QBRs. - Support teams have hour-plus response times and low satisfaction scores. Many customers would rather interact with top-tier AI than average human reps—and AI improves monthly while human performance stays stagnant. The mediocre middle of GTM teams will be hollowed out, leaving only elite relationship builders and strategic consultants. Others become expendable. If you don’t see this change, it means you’re behind. The clearest predictor of success in the next wave is how quickly executives mobilize real AI adoption—not just talk or plans, but actual deployment.

Some companies have completely transformed within 90 days. Is your leadership still debating use cases and risk? Don’t let perfection stop progress. Your competition isn’t waiting. Three Monday Morning Actions: 1. Identify where AI can have the biggest impact—usually where manual, repetitive work dominates. 2. Set ambitious 30-60-90 day AI adoption goals with clear ownership. 3. Elevate AI to a CEO and board-level priority—it’s existential, not optional. Move fast or lose everything. Your competition—both new entrants and incumbents—will lap you if you hesitate. At the same time, use AI to rejuvenate your company. Consider it a re-founding in the AI Age. It’s stressful, but also an exciting chance to let your team innovate wildly. This is not an exaggeration—this is potentially your last, best wake-up call. The pace of change in SaaS and B2B is unprecedented. Adapt now or be left behind.