A trend has been essential for a few months in the SaaS B2B: Artificial intelligence has become the fresh paint layer that is applied to all products (and all the more so if they are particularly tired.)
Example:
- Do you have HR management software that stagnates? Add an “AI assistant”.
- An analytics dashboard that no longer sells? Put a “COPILOT”.
- An e-commerce platform that is struggling to grow? Talk about “LLM customization”.
In the overwhelming majority of cases, This varnish hides only one thing: the total absence of innovation.
Slide syndrome “Ai-Friest”
From Chatgpt, each pitch deck includes its slide “A-Si-STRA architecture”. We read terms like “Fine-Tuning”, “Multi-agent Framework”, “Embeddings pipeline”… but as soon as we dig, everything is based on some API calls to Openai or Hugging Face, often piloted in No-Code. No owner model, no integrated business complexity, no barrier at the entrance.
And yet these companies raise. Because investors also want their dose of AI.
An indicator: Dissonance produced
Ask these three questions to a “IA-Power” startup:
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- What part of your product would be unusable without AI?
- What measuring measurable your customers get thanks to this AI brick?
- How is your use of AI is defensible in the face of a competitor who would do the same in 3 months?
Most hesitate. Or dodge. This is a sign that we are in strategic bullshit, not in a real product dynamic.
The illusion of the moat
Many believe that AI will become their moat. Bad news: what is bought in API is not a moat.
What makes a moat is:
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- Massive, well structured proprietary data.
- Deeply anchored business use cases.
- Network or integration effects that are difficult to replicate.
Who is the fault?
To startups? Yes. To investors? Also. But especially in the ambient climate that pushes to “Appear ia” more than to be useful. A startup that says “we make solid SaaS, well executed, with little AI” almost passes for cheesy. And yet, it is often these boxes that do it best but pass for cheesy.
In conclusion
AI can transform SaaS models – but not as a marketing argument. It is neither a shortcut to the product-market Fit, nor insurance against the churn.Does it create real value for my customers, or does it just look like smart in board meetings?
