How to Transform a SaaS Platform to an Agentic Platform (Step-by-Step Playbook)

When ChatGPT came out, every SaaS company raced to “Add AI” to their product lineup. It got pretty weird. It was like that time when LinkedIn added “Stories” to their platform. It quickly turned into a “Stop trying to make Fetch happen.”

Thankfully that period has come to an end. Customers ignore the “Ask AI” feature, and SaaS Platforms are getting to the meat of what it truly means to deliver on AI and an Agentic Platform.

Every traditional SaaS Platform is now ripe for disruption because of AI. But the expectations are high. Trust can quickly be lost. And so in order to thrive in this platform shift, traditional SaaS Platforms have to thoughtfully architect how they deliver on AI. And if they don’t, the AI-first competitors will eat their lunch and you’ll quickly become the Oracle of the CRM world.

In prior editions of The GTM Lever, I covered some key macro level views of this platform shift, this includes our reference blueprint of how we’ve shifted from the Spreadsheet-era → SaaS-era → (and now) the AI-era.

In earlier editions of this newsletter, I covered:

• How to Compete in SaaS During the AI-era

• How AI-first SaaS Companies are Disrupting Traditional SaaS

• The Road Ahead For Traditional SaaS Platforms and Value Creation

On this edition, I wanted to share our current thinking of a practical playbook traditional SaaS platforms can follow to transform from a traditional SaaS Platform → Agentic Platform.

Every single traditional SaaS company, and more importantly, every single PE Fund will have to create a Transformation Playbook on how they’ll transform during this Platform Shift to maintain relevance. In this edition, I’m sharing the first version of our playbook.

Let’s dig in…