Futurum’s 2H 2026 Enterprise Applications Decision-Makers survey shows enterprise buyers are pulling away from flat, per-seat pricing for core software purchases, but the picture for AI-specific pricing is more fragmented than a simple “seat-based is dead” narrative suggests, and vendors chasing one clean model risk misreading the market.

For core enterprise software generally, per-user-per-month is now the least-preferred pricing structure among buyers who name pricing as a top purchase criterion. That’s a real and significant move away from the seat-based default of the last decade, driven largely by the anticipated shift to agentic workers who aren’t tied to physical workers.

Generative AI functionality, however, tells a different story. Among buyers whose vendors charge separately for GenAI, per-seat pricing is the top preference, largely because buyers seek predictable, budgetable costs for AI specifically, even while demanding usage- and outcome-based pricing elsewhere, creating a clear tension for vendors to resolve.

• Evolving Buyer Preferences: According to Futurum’s 2H 2026 Enterprise Software Decision Makers survey, buyers evaluating core software purchases now rank per-seat pricing dead last among five pricing models (12.6%), with consumption-based (28.9%) and outcome-based (22.2%) leading. For generative AI functionality specifically, however, the picture flips: when AI is priced as a separate add-on, 42.3% of buyers still prefer per-seat pricing over consumption (36.6%) or outcomes (21.1%), suggesting buyers want cost predictability for AI even as they abandon seat-based pricing for the rest of their stack.
• Market Momentum: Early movers like Zendesk, Intercom, and Decagon have already shifted to pure outcome-based models, while major incumbents, including Salesforce, Adobe, Pegasystems, and ServiceNow, are utilizing hybrid frameworks that incorporate consumption and outcome-linked elements. Varying company types, use cases, and levels of risk tolerance demand a flexible pricing approach that still allows users to see the value delivered by the core software and AI offerings.