In partnership with

SaaS Strategists,

Last week I shared a LinkedIn post and I was confident enough to write this:

“If you have to read only 1 post about SaaS in 2025, I guarantee you it should be this one.”

And by my humble opinion, it really should be.

Today I’d like to double down on that sentence and go a bit deeper into 5 trends that I’m confident will shape the future of SaaS.

Let’s jump in 👇

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Reading time: 4 minutes

A big shift is happening in SaaS at the moment.

Big players know the secrets of how to get ahead,

And let me tell you one thing -

They sure ain’t sharing them.

So I did a bit of research of my own.

A lot of research, to be honest.

And I want to share what big players are hiding from you.

Here are the 5 trends that I saw big industry players are utilizing to drastically increase their productivity, lower headcount, while pulling in the revenue and profit margins like never before.

AI agents are evolving beyond simple chatbots to perform intricate functions with minimal human intervention.

Companies like Apple, Tinder, and ServiceNow are integrating AI agents for various use cases.

From organizing customer service to recommending dating spots.

There’s a huge trend on the rise where organizations don’t want to overspend on hiring a team of 10, when they can just pay 1 person a 20-30% higher salary, and that person can oversee 10 AI Agent processes.

Suppose you’re feeling stuck in your career or SaaS development journey.

In that case, mastering AI Agent management will drastically increase your chances of getting a higher salary, or generally just improving your SaaS efficiency by delegating complex processes to AI, thus saving time and allowing you to focus on growth.

To learn more about AI Agents and what they really are, here’s a great resource to begin:

The second trend I noticed is the shift from seat-based to usage-based pricing.

And there’s one new concept we’re all familiar with that’s driving this path.

AI credits.

This change is driven by the high computational costs associated with advanced AI models.

Whenever you run a specific AI action, it runs a bunch of different processes in the background in order to provide you with the most accurate solution to your problem.

Here’s a great illustration from Marcos Rivera:

Literally every big SaaS company is investing in AI today, and why develop your own LLMs when you can just plug ChatGPT into your product & you’re good to go.

But this comes at a cost.

Mainly because of this, SaaS pricing has become unpredictable.

You can’t charge a flat rate / per-seat anymore.

You can’t predict the quantity of use for specific AI features.

Thus, the most logical solution - we’ll charge based on usage.

Make sure you don’t overlook this variable if you’re starting to build your AI SaaS.

You hear about this one on a daily level.

Go niche. Go niche. Go niche.

And the truth is - industry specific SaaS-es are the new norm.

Vertical SaaS focuses on addressing the unique needs of specific industries, offering sniper-targeted features.

Instead of building a generalist workout tracking app, indie hackers are opting for a workout tracker for NBA players.

Smaller audience = less saturation = more chance to position yourself as the authority.

The vertical SaaS market is estimated to reach a whopping $157.4 billion in 2025.

If you’re interested in developing a vertical SaaS, this post from Thiago Caserta should definitely be on your reading list.

Ah yes.

We’ve come to the final boss of AI SaaS hype.

Vibe coding.

Now, before you say anything, let me tell you this:

Lovable, a platform for developing websites and SaaS MVPs, just based on 1 prompt, went from $0 to $17M ARR in just 2 months.

They are currently at $43M ARR.

So you can hate vibe-coding all you want, but capitalizing on it will bring you results.

These platforms let founders focus on storytelling and user experience, letting AI do the heavy lifting.

Thus the whole concept of “vibe-coding”, I mean you’re literally building a SaaS based on how you’d like for it to FEEL.

This is the holy grail of indie hackers, as it just got 100x easier to develop, launch & test MVPs in order to see if the idea is worth pursuing.

Personally, I’m not a fan.

I know the risks these websites bring if you’re serious about SaaS development, but they are definitely a good way to test things before you dive deeper into your idea.

Indie Hackers created a curated list of 29 vibe-coding tools you can check out here: https://www.indiehackers.com/vibe-coding-tools?utm_source=indie-hackers-emails&utm_campaign=ih-newsletter&utm_medium=email

Businesses don’t want to organize data across 15 different SaaS apps anymore.

This indicates a trend that organizations are seeking unified platforms that reduce the complexity of managing multiple tools.

Take Notion, for example - you can create project roadmaps, track meeting notes, and it can also be your content creation planner.

With some 3rd party API connections, it can become a fully automated SaaS ticketing machine.

It consolidated 20 different apps into 1.

And companies are all for it!

I mean, why pay for 20 different solutions, have your data scattered when you can just use 1 software?

But with the rise of consolidation, there’s one additional topic that’s very important that I want to mention:

You probably guessed it.

Having your data centralized in 1 software can be a big security risk for the majority of organizations.

This is why I’m big on cybersecurity in the upcoming years.

If you’re getting into the SaaS space, and want to build your own company, consider going into cybersec.

Our agency just rolled out a new offer where we will help you develop your SaaS MVP in just 60 days.

If you’re interested to hear more about how it works, reply to this email with “MVP” and I’ll personally reach out.

I hope you now have a solid foundation on what trends to focus on moving forward.

In the meantime, let me know what topic you’d like to learn more about:

Ognjen Gatalo

Chief SaaS Strategist ☁

P.S. Forward this issue to a fellow SaaS founder!