Microsoft exec suggests AI agents will need to buy software licenses, just like employees
www.businessinsider.com
Are AI agents employees or tools? A Microsoft exec suggested they're new paid "seats," a shift that could reshape SaaS pricing — and spark pushback.

Buried in the story was a deceptively simple question: does your AI agent count as an employee?

At a recent conference, Microsoft executive Rajesh Jha floated a provocative idea. In a future where companies deploy fleets of AI agents, those agents may need their own identities — logins, inboxes, and even seats inside software systems. If so, AI wouldn’t shrink software revenue. It could expand it.

  • greyscale@lemmy.grey.oooEnglish
    9·
    7 hours ago

    Do AI sit in “seats” 🤭 and is it per-agent or per-agent-instance? Or per-agent-instance-second?

    “All of those embodied agents are seat opportunities,” Jha said, envisioning organizations with more agents than humans — each effectively a user that must pay for a software license, or “seat” in industry lingo.

    He’s been watching Pantheon, I think.

    • GalacticSushi@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      6·
      5 hours ago

      Can the AI take the in-office seats so I can go back to being productive at home instead of listening to my coworker loudly talk to a garage door salesman on the phone?