Sridhar Vembu: AI Popping SaaS Bubble, Triggering IT Rout & Consolidation

• Sridhar Vembu, Zoho founder, states AI is accelerating the consolidation of the global SaaS industry, upending existing business models.
• Vembu highlights that many SaaS firms historically overspent on sales and marketing compared to engineering, an unsustainable model propped up by venture capital.
• The IT rout, including a Rs 2 lakh crore loss for the India IT industry, followed Anthropic's Claude Cowork extension tool, which performs complex tasks.
• AI is seen as a catalyst for long-predicted consolidation, forcing SaaS companies to prioritize engineering efficiency and product depth over aggressive customer acquisition.
• Vembu predicts that within 24 months, AI systems could build and maintain most software end-to-end, eliminating traditional development roles and drastically compressing costs.