Bookmark: Transforming Enterprises: Unpacking the Shift from SaaS to Service as Software

Explore how Service as Software (S'aaS) empowers businesses to innovate and tailor processes, transforming the traditional SaaS model for greater uniqueness.

A quote from the article that captures the essence of its transformative message is: “A new possibility is now emerging to challenge the notion of SaaS as we know it: ‘service as software’ (S’aaS). It is more than just wordplay; it’s the fast-emerging possibility that every organization can define, create and establish unique business processes that instill their uniqueness into how business functions.”
Transforming Enterprises: Unpacking the Shift from SaaS to Service as Software

The concept of Service as Software (S’aaS) represents a significant shift from traditional SaaS models. Historically, B2B SaaS solutions offered prepackaged applications that required businesses to align with software-defined best practices, often limiting organizational uniqueness. However, S’aaS redefines this by providing an adaptable digital framework where businesses can design processes unique to their operational needs. This transition is primarily driven by advances in AI, particularly through technologies like GenAI and LLMs, which allow for AI-driven workflows tailored to specific processes.

Unlike SaaS, which demanded conformity, S’aaS enables technology to adapt to businesses, fostering innovation through agentic AI capabilities that drive process automation. This evolution emphasizes effective data management and continuous improvement in business processes, developing a digital nervous system for organizations. The successful implementation necessitates robust data governance, AI-driven orchestration, and strategic risk management approaches.

As enterprises transition to S’aaS, they must focus on enhancing AI literacy, fostering innovative use case ideas, developing a comprehensive data strategy, and applying agile change management practices. This transformation holds significant potential for enterprises, particularly those with complex processes, as S’aaS platforms evolve into intelligent, autonomous business systems poised to shape the future of work.

Featured writing

Why customer tools are organized wrong

This article reveals a fundamental flaw in how customer support tools are designed—organizing by interaction type instead of by customer—and explains why this fragmentation wastes time and obscures the full picture you need to help users effectively.

Infrastructure shapes thought

The tools you build determine what kinds of thinking become possible. On infrastructure, friction, and building deliberately for thought rather than just throughput.

Server-Side Dashboard Architecture: Why Moving Data Fetching Off the Browser Changes Everything

How choosing server-side rendering solved security, CORS, and credential management problems I didn't know I had.

Books

The Work of Being (in progress)

A book on AI, judgment, and staying human at work.

The Practice of Work (in progress)

Practical essays on how work actually gets done.

Recent writing

We always panic about new tools (and we're always wrong)

Every time a new tool emerges for making or manipulating symbols, we panic. The pattern is so consistent it's almost embarrassing. Here's what happened each time.

Dev reflection - February 03, 2026

I've been thinking about constraints today. Not the kind that block you—the kind that clarify. There's a difference, and most people miss it.

When execution becomes cheap, ideas become expensive

This article reveals a fundamental shift in how organizations operate: as AI makes execution nearly instantaneous, the bottleneck has moved from implementation to decision-making. Understanding this transition is critical for anyone leading teams or making strategic choices in an AI-enabled world.

View all writing →