Welcome to The Margin, a newsletter designed to keep you on the leading edge of monetization.
Amid the deafening noise about AI taking over the world, the real work still moves on a careful pace of questions and decisions. Companies are asking themselves whether anything they do on a day-to-day basis can be done better with AI – could AI replace and redesign old processes and approaches to routine business and financial tasks?
Automated Revenue Management (ARM), aka Rev Rec, software is one area that is ripe with expectation of disruption. The 2025 ARM Top 30 Buyer’s Guide is this year’s comprehensive update that spotlights critical issues facing finance, business and technology leaders and addresses head-on the difficult questions of AI’s impact and risk in accounting automation. Following the publication of the ARM Top 30 Buyer’s Guide, MGI held a live webcast that reviewed its core research findings and shared practical recommendations.
Some of the study highlights are:
Research Spotlight
The Definitive Guide to Automated Revenue Management in 2025
Automated Revenue Management (ARM) is now one of the most strategic, yet risky, decisions in enterprise software. Get it right and you gain scalability, compliance confidence, and investor trust. Get it wrong and the impact ripples across audits, forecasts, and boardrooms. Well-performing ARM software is both your ticket to scale and your safeguard, keeping revenue accurate, auditors calm, investors confident, and growth on track.
The differences between capabilities of ARM vendors are wide and often obscured by marketing claims. The wrong choice can mean late financial closes and costly re-implementations; the right one delivers agility, transparency, and control. For buyers, vendors, integrators or investors, this guide helps see through the noise and choose with confidence.
The Market Has Changed
ARM has evolved far beyond its original compliance focus. Complex usage-based pricing, hybrid models, and multi-element contracts now test system limits of capability and scalability. MGI Research finds that:
- ARM is no longer a checkbox – it flips the switch for attaining growth
- Vendor Marketing often obscures capability gaps
- Buyers are more discerning
- AI is everywhere, but trust isn’t
Inside the 2025 ARM Top 30 Buyer’s Guide
Built on MGI’s quant-based methodology, the guide offers independent analysis, Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs), and MGI 360 Ratings™ across Product, Management, Channels, Strategy, and Finance.
Sixteen vendors are MGI 360 Rated™, including Ayara Inc, BillingPlatform, Certinia, Chargebee, Gotransverse, Maxio, NetSuite, RightRev, Sage Intacct, Inc., SAP, Workday, Zone & Co, and Zuora. Others, such as Aptitude Software, Recurly, Rev.io, Stripe, Zenskar , Zoho, and eight others are recognized as honorable mentions.
This Guide is an essential reading for buyers, finance and IT leaders, and investors navigating the next wave of AI-enabled monetization.
In Case You Missed It:
ARM Webinar Replay Now Available
Watch the replay on our website:
Research Spotlight
Gen AI Is Rewriting the Rules of Quote-to-Cash
Generative AI isn’t just accelerating Quote-to-Cash – it’s changing its physics.
From pricing and packaging to billing and revenue recognition, Gen AI is forcing every enterprise to rethink how value is created, delivered, and monetized. The new MGI Research report, How Will Gen AI Impact Quote-to-Cash?, examines how AI is reshaping the foundations of monetization – and why clean, dynamic data will determine who leads and who lags.
In this in-depth analysis, MGI Research explores how organizations are already weaving AI into their go-to-market and financial operations, revealing both breakthrough opportunities and major risks.
You’ll learn:
- How Gen AI transforms every Q2C discipline – from dynamic pricing and personalized packaging to continuous financial close.
- Why dirty data kills Gen AI initiatives – and how “Mediation 2.0” provides the foundation for trust, transparency, and scalability.
- What it takes to build an AI-ready monetization engine capable of handling usage- and outcome-based models at enterprise scale.
- How CFOs, CIOs, and RevOps leaders can align around data quality, automation, and governance to achieve AI-driven agility.
- What separates tomorrow’s winners – humans + Gen AI + clean data – from those stuck debugging spreadsheets.
The impact of Gen AI on Q2C is seminal: this is not just a speed boost. It’s a structural shift in how businesses package, price, sell, bill, and recognize revenue.
Prepare for a process change, not just a productivity enhancer. Access this latest research report:
The Margin Podcast, Episode 7
Tien Tzuo on Total Monetization: The Next Evolution Beyond Subscriptions
In this episode of The Margin Podcast, Andrew Dailey, Managing Director of MGI Research, sits down with Zuora CEO and founder Tien Tzuo, the originator of the “subscription economy,” to explore his latest vision: Total Monetization. They discuss how modern business models are shifting from static pricing to dynamic, relationship-based monetization strategies. Tien shares insights on usage-based billing, scaling complexity, future-proofing your tech stack, and why monetization must be holistic and customer-centric. If you’re navigating the transition to flexible, consumption-driven models, this conversation is a must-listen.
What you’ll learn in this episode:
- Why subscriptions are no longer enough – and how total monetization redefines modern business models.
- How pricing evolves from fixed transactions to relationship-based value creation.
- Why automation and agile infrastructure are essential to scale flexible pricing and packaging.
- How finance, sales, and customer success must align to support continuous monetization.
- Why companies that fail to adapt risk being outpaced by AI-driven competitors and market change
Listen to this episode on all major podcast platforms and on our website:
In Case You Missed It:
Does AI Enlarge or Diminish Total Addressable Markets?
In our recent webinar, MGI Research analysts Andrew Dailey and Igor Stenmark unpacked one of the most pressing questions facing executives and boards: What impact will Generative AI have on software budgets and TAM forecasts?
Key insights from the discussion:
- AI isn’t binary – it won’t eliminate enterprise software, nor will it create endless new markets. Reality lies between hype and doom.
- Expect TAM shifts of +1% to +5% CAGR – Gen AI is likely additive, but effects vary by category and scenario.
- Scenario planning matters – MGI outlined baseline, optimistic, and “AI disillusionment” scenarios that boards and investors should consider.
- Budgets lag adoption – AI pilots are growing, but consistent ROI and pricing models remain elusive, making it difficult for users to budget accordingly.
- Enterprise trust is key – For AI to reshape Rev Rec, billing, or CLM, auditors and finance execs and legal teams must trust the outputs, not just the tech.
Bottom line: Gen AI is a tailwind, but one that demands credible, nuanced TAM forecasting frameworks.
Notes from the Road – Gen AI Adoption in Europe
Historically, Europe has often lagged North America in adoption of new technologies. For example, major technological disruptions such as cloud computing only gained critical mass in Europe 2-3 years after North America. With Gen AI it may end up being quite different. Conversations with a number of European tech leaders during a recent road trip show that Europe is rapidly catching up to North America when it comes to applying Gen AI. Many companies are already well past the stage of initial experimentation and adopting advanced modern software development tools and platforms.
Bottom line: European leaders see Gen AI as critical and their companies are likely only 6-9 months behind the US. In some cases, well ahead.
Industry News
Recent announcements across the Quote-to-Cash and Agile Monetization landscape underscore accelerating momentum around AI-driven automation and platform convergence. Vendors are embedding generative and predictive intelligence deeper into CLM, CPQ, PSA, and billing systems – streamlining contract analysis, pricing, and service delivery. Leadership changes, strategic acquisitions, and product redesigns signal an ongoing race to modernize enterprise monetization stacks and position for next-generation growth.
Agiloft Hires Joe Yurich as Chief Revenue Officer
Agiloft announced the appointment of Joe Yurich as Chief Revenue Officer to accelerate enterprise growth and deepen adoption of its AI-driven CLM platform. The company continues to expand its leadership team as generative and predictive AI features become more central to contract management strategies.
Conga to Acquire PROS’s B2B Business
Conga announced plans to acquire PROS’s B2B business to strengthen its position in the CPQ market. The move expands Conga’s focus on AI-driven pricing, quoting, and document-automation capabilities and gives it an additional footprint in physical products CPQ segment. This transaction will follow the previously announced acquisition of PROS by Thoma Bravo – the controlling shareholder of Conga.
ConnectWise PSA Adds Integration with MobileRMM Technology
MobileRMM Technology announced a new integration with ConnectWise PSA, enabling managed-service providers to connect mobile device management workflows with ticketing and automation tools. The partnership reflects growing demand for unified service-delivery and billing ecosystems.
Kantata Unveils AI Platform to Harness Firmwide Knowledge
Kantata introduced the Kantata Expertise Engine™, an AI-based platform designed to help professional-services organizations surface institutional knowledge and apply it across engagements. The release aligns with the firm’s strategy to extend analytics and predictive intelligence across its PS Cloud suite.
Oracle NetSuite Overhauls User Experience, Introduces AI-Driven Updates
Oracle NetSuite unveiled a major platform overhaul, adding conversational AI, agentic workflows, and natural-language search to its ERP and billing suite. The update, branded “NetSuite Next,” represents a broad effort by Oracle to embed generative AI across its business-application portfolio.
Workday Unleashes Over 120 AI Models for CLM
Workday introduced more than 120 pre-built AI models for its Contract Lifecycle Management solution, enhancing automation for contract review, risk analysis, and term extraction. The update extends Workday’s broader generative-AI strategy aimed at unifying HR, finance, and legal workflows.
Upcoming Events
Meet MGI at these upcoming events:
- December 1–5, 2025
- Las Vegas, NV
So What Have I Missed?
Our most recent and relevant research that will help you keep your finger on the pulse of AMP disciplines.
- Agile Billing MarketLens™: Go-to-Market Strength vs. Solution Strength
- Agile Billing MarketLens™: Complexity vs. Volume
- Agile Billing MarketLens™: Agility vs. Volume
- Agile Billing MarketLens™: Agility vs. Complexity
- CPQ MarketLens™: Go-to-Market Strength vs. Solution Strength
- CPQ MarketLens™: Agility vs. Volume
- CPQ MarketLens™: Agility vs. Complexity
- CPQ MarketLens™: Complexity vs. Volume
- MGI MarketLens™: ARM – Agility vs Complexity
- MGI MarketLens™: ARM – Go-To-Market vs Solution Strength
The Evergreen Archives
Curated past research that is still pertinent today.
- State of Monetization
- What Every CEO Needs to Know About Subscription Business
- Six Stages of CLM
- Mediation 2.0: Taking on the Data Challenge in Agile Billing
- Quote-to-Cash Is Dead; Long Live Prospect-to-Disclosure
- Headless eCommerce Architecture: Is eCommerce Losing Its Head?
- How to Scale Monetization Globally
- Evolution of MoR into Monetization as a Service
That’s it for this issue of The Margin. If you’ve made it this far, we’ll certainly see you next time.
Warm wishes,
MGI Research
