The Deadly “AI Slow Roll” in SaaS: It May Cost You Everything

I’m seeing an alarming trend across the SaaS landscape that’s going to separate winners from losers in the next 18 months: The AI Slow Roll.

You know what I’m talking about:

• It’s the VP of Engineering who’s “still evaluating Windsurf and Cursor” but says it’s still a little bit early.
• It’s the Product leader confidently declaring AI “isn’t ready for prime time because of hallucinations.”
• It’s the CRO insisting that “customers all want to talk to a human” and that “a great sales rep beats AI any day of the week.”

Let me be crystal clear: Change fast or die.  At least, watch your business atrophy.

Everyone that’s invested in a wide group of B2B and SaaS companies is seeing this.  For

the most part, those that haven’t aggressively adopt AI in their products are seeing growth slow.  Sometimes, they are seeing a bit uptick in churn.  Sometimes, retention is staying up but they are losing deals to new entrants.  Whatever it is, it’s a threat if you aren’t ahead of the curve here.  And it’s accelerating.

Is your team really doing what you need it to here?  If not, you will lose.

This may sound dramatic, and honestly I wasn’t even sure change would come this fast just a few months ago.  But now it’s 100% clear.

The Best Dev Teams Are Already Automating 30%-50% of Code Into Production.  And Shipping So Many More Features

While many are still “evaluating options,” your competitors have already transformed their operations:

• Top-tier tech companies are automating 50% of their code production with AI tools
• Even conservative enterprises like Salesforce have hit 20% automation
• HubSpot is producing so many new features it can’t even put them all into production anymore
• The gap between AI-native and AI-hesitant companies is widening every single week

Companies deploying AI at scale are seeing 30-40% productivity gains in engineering and customer satisfaction scores increasing when AI is properly deployed in support.  These are the two areas furthest ahead in AI.  But sales, marketing and success are not far behind.

“Hallucinations” Are Just an Excuse for Inaction

When executives tell me “we’re concerned about hallucinations,” what I really hear is: “we don’t want to do the work.”

This problem is already solved by companies who approach AI deployment seriously:

• Implement proper training and fine-tuning
• Build exception handling into your workflows
• Create human escalation paths for edge cases
• Start with non-critical use cases and expand

Yes, it’s more complicated in many regulated industries.  There are cases where even a 1% hallucination rate isn’t OK.  But think about it.  How often is the average customer support or success rep 100% right?   Most “hallucinate” more than a well trained AI.

Your competition has already figured this out. They’re not waiting for perfect AI – they’re iterating toward excellence while you’re stuck in planning meetings.

AI Is Going to Devastate Mediocre Go-To-Market Teams, Especially SMB Teams and Mediocre CS Teams

Be honest about your customer-facing teams:

• Many AEs take 24+ hours to respond to hot leads, weakly sending a calendly link to schedule something in a few days
• Your SDRs send generic, template-heavy outreach.  Endlessly.
• Your CSMs barely show up prepared to QBRs.  Be honest here.
• Your support team has 1+ hour response times.  Or even longer.  And low CSAT scores.

Many of your customers would already prefer interacting with an S-tier AI over your B-tier humans. And with each passing month, that AI gets better while your humans… stay the same.

The mediocre middle of go-to-market teams is about to be hollowed out, leaving only elite relationship builders and strategic consultants at the top. Everyone else becomes expendable.

If You Don’t See the Change, It’s You

The single most reliable indicator I’ve found of which B2B companies will thrive in the next wave? How quickly their executives mobilized meaningful AI adoption.

Not discussion. Not evaluation. Not roadmaps. Actual adoption.

I’ve watched companies in every industry completely transform themselves in 90 days.  Is your leadership team still debating “potential use cases” and “risk mitigation.”

Don’t let perfect be the enemy of done. Your competition isn’t.

Three Things To Do Monday Morning:

1. Identify your highest-leverage AI deployment area (hint: it’s usually where you have the most manual, repetitive work)
2. Set aggressive 30-60-90 day metrics for AI adoption with clear ownership
3. Make it a CEO/Board-level priority – this isn’t a nice-to-have technology project

Treat this like the existential threat it is. Because for most B2B companies moving too slowly on AI, that’s exactly what it’s going to be.  Your competition, new and even old, is going to lap you.  Even if you can’t see it yet.

Change fast. Or lose everything.

And also … use AI to reinvigorate your company.

It’s probably also time to re-found your SaaS in the Age of AI.  That’s stressful.  But it can also be fun.  Let the team run wild with ideas, and see where it takes you.

I’m not exaggerating to make a point.  This might be your last, best wake-up call.

The pace of change is faster than anything we’ve ever seen in SaaS and B2B.