Salesforce is shifting to seat-based licensing for its AI agents after customer demand for pricing predictability, moving away from consumption and per-conversation models. The Agentic Enterprise License Agreement (AELA) offers flexible options with reusable credits based on seats, though vendors typically include usage caps or AI unit limits to control costs. Analysts note this indicates customers aren't yet replacing staff with AI but want cost certainty before investing. Gartner forecasts agentic AI could drive 30% of enterprise software revenue by 2035. The approach balances customer desire for predictable costs with vendor need to control backend LLM expenses, though concerns remain about vendor lock-in and whether customers will pay for underutilized seats.
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