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What web businesses will continue to make money post AI?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: What web businesses will continue to make money post AI?

#31

Post by gnz11 »

RamblingCTO wrote: post #12

AI is not killing SaaS, there is no real proof for that. No one wants to host, maintain, and be liable for shit other people can do better for less money. You share R&D costs with other customers. It's more efficient. This take is so unimaginably stupid and far from the truth it makes me angry. You have network effects, liability, maintenance, mental/managerial complexity, integrations and on and on the list goes. I…

> No one wants to host, maintain, and be liable for shit other people can do better for less money.

I think the point is that AI will be able to do this better and cheaper than the SaaS companies.

Re: What web businesses will continue to make money post AI?

#32

Post by austin-cheney »

raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #30
austin-cheney wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember that data/content is king as the paradigm of business on the web? Its where we have been since the late 90s. Its the advertising economy. Both business and individual consumers don't want to pay for it any more. Self-hosted applications with a cloud premium upgrade are the new business model. For example why bother with all the invasive nonsense of Facebook if a person can self-host something that works bett…

Right, businesses don’t want to pay $10/seat for SaaS but they want to create server rooms in their offices and hire a bunch of IT people to support it? > Self-hosted applications with a cloud premium upgrade are the new business model That’s not happening for any company. Where pray tell are these companies “self hosting” and supporting their business that they are getting a better deal than their per seat licensing…

You don’t look for decentralized self sufficiency by looking at random large companies. You find it by looking at the self hosting products and seeing who their paying customers are.

Re: What web businesses will continue to make money post AI?

#34

Post by RamblingCTO »

gnz11 wrote: post #31
RamblingCTO wrote: post #12

AI is not killing SaaS, there is no real proof for that. No one wants to host, maintain, and be liable for shit other people can do better for less money. You share R&D costs with other customers. It's more efficient. This take is so unimaginably stupid and far from the truth it makes me angry. You have network effects, liability, maintenance, mental/managerial complexity, integrations and on and on the list goes. I…

> No one wants to host, maintain, and be liable for shit other people can do better for less money. I think the point is that AI will be able to do this better and cheaper than the SaaS companies.

You missed my point. Upfront cost is not the only cost in business. And I still stand by it that shared infrastructure costs for example are way more efficient than everyone doing a half-arsed version of whatever it is.

Re: What web businesses will continue to make money post AI?

#35

Post by raw_anon_1111 »

austin-cheney wrote: post #32
raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, businesses don’t want to pay $10/seat for SaaS but they want to create server rooms in their offices and hire a bunch of IT people to support it? > Self-hosted applications with a cloud premium upgrade are the new business model That’s not happening for any company. Where pray tell are these companies “self hosting” and supporting their business that they are getting a better deal than their per seat licensing…

You don’t look for decentralized self sufficiency by looking at random large companies. You find it by looking at the self hosting products and seeing who their paying customers are.

And that’s an even worse argument, if large companies don’t want to self host, how many small companies do you think want to manage servers? Where are they going to put them when many don’t have an office?

Re: What web businesses will continue to make money post AI?

#36

Post by gnz11 »

RamblingCTO wrote: post #34
gnz11 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No one wants to host, maintain, and be liable for shit other people can do better for less money. I think the point is that AI will be able to do this better and cheaper than the SaaS companies.

You missed my point. Upfront cost is not the only cost in business. And I still stand by it that shared infrastructure costs for example are way more efficient than everyone doing a half-arsed version of whatever it is.

I agree with you in the short term but what makes you think companies will even be asking AI to write bespoke software or setup any kind of infrastructure in the long term? Theoretically AI would handle all of this for you with much greater fidelity and accuracy than any human could manage. Any business processes would be handled by the AI which already has all of your corporate data. Why would I need a SaaS service when I could have the AI do the task or generate the answer? Why would I send data to a SaaS when I can just give it to the AI? Granted I don't believe we are anywhere close to such a scenario, but it seems to be the trajectory that we are on.
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