AI, ARM & CLM: What’s Next

Workday Rising, SAP Connect, SuiteWorld, Malbek Envision, Dreamforce

We recently attended a series of user conferences.  To be expected, AI was at the top of the agenda – but so was helping customers get more value from existing applications. Clients should contact their MGI rep to schedule an inquiry call for analysis of a particular event (or all of them) in detail.

Here are some quick highlights and observations:

Each mega vendor has created ~250-400 agentic agents. Sounds like a lot but considering the breadth of their applications across the enterprise, it’s actually not very much. A given application like financials or procurement typically has – at most – a couple dozen agentic agents. Most applications have a handful of agents and use cases. Market hype places AI far beyond where actual delivery is. The first half of 2026 is when more truly AI-enabled functionality will become widely available for early adopters, and the second half is when a significant number of agents and AI-based features are scheduled to go into general production.

The user struggle is real. Most companies are running all kinds of trials and POCs. More progressive companies started last year. Business benefits, so far, tend to center around productivity gains and efficiency enhancements. Incremental spending for AI is expected to be found in recycled dollars – e.g., companies need to cut spend in one area and re-allocate that spend towards AI-based functionality elsewhere.  While users are generally receptive to AI, compelling business cases with airtight implementation are yet to be written.

Usage or consumption-based pricing is temporary (probability = 0.7). Most vendors have announced some type of usage or consumption-based pricing frameworks, yet customers are still cautious to the point of being wary of making any real commitments. This hesitation is justified, as business cases for investment in AI are nascent. Companies need budget predictability – especially at a time of major geopolitical upheaval and supply/demand uncertainty. Early-stage, AI-first products that are essentially a bolt-on to existing enterprise applications are finding traction with usage models, but these will quickly transition to some form of subscription fee (which may align with usage tiers) as customers want predictability, transparency, and accuracy in their software bills. Discussions with users of all sizes reinforced this view.

Expectations of AI increasing overall TAM for vendors are not grounded in reality. Given 1) most AI functionality is still in early adopter status, the use cases and potential benefits are largely yet to be uncovered/well-documented, 2) pricing is a large unknown with a high likelihood of being commoditized, and 3) the mega-vendors are primarily focused on retaining their installed base of customers and encouraging them to migrate to the cloud or continue paying premium prices for existing applications (e.g., Oracle, Salesforce, and SAP).  We asked the executive team at SAP whether or not AI expanded SAP’s TAM, and the answer was muddled at best. They expect AI to help customers reduce overall spend, thus enabling them to re-allocate more spend towards SAP. AI, in all its forms, will undoubtedly uncover new use cases. The spend, however, will likely have to come from departmental budgets outside of IT. Expectations of an existing software category (e.g., ERP, procurement, CLM, et al.) suddenly doubling or tripling in size over the next five years are misguided, in our view.

For deeper analysis, watch our webinar, “Does AI Enlarge or Diminish Total Addressable Markets?” [passcode: *1Q$h#UN] 

This session examines how AI-driven innovation is reshaping vendor strategies and influencing market size expectations across enterprise software categories, from ERP and CLM to billing and revenue management.

Conference sessions focused on getting more value from existing (non-AI) applications, as a general observation, were packed.  While the headlines were pulled from the AI announcements, customers dedicated their time and attention to learning about recent product enhancements. This was true across all the conferences.

And herein lies the conundrum. The promise of AI may well be real. In fact, it may be greater than promised. But today users are struggling to get more out of existing investments in non-AI features and functions. The price to value equation for AI-enabled apps has yet to be determined, and for vendors to expect users to embrace the agentic age of business applications is a stretch. It’s going to take time – time for the early versions of agents and AI-assisted functionality to seep into the market, and time for business cases to be documented. Until the price to value equation becomes clear, user adoption may take longer than many investors – and vendors – are expecting.

Discover Which ARM Vendors Are Setting the Standard in 2025

The 2025 Automated Revenue Management (ARM) Buyer’s Guide is on its way and the results may surprise you. Over the last few years, ARM (a.k.a. RevRec) has been evolving rapidly from a back-office finance utility into a strategic Office of the CFO tool providing highly granular revenue visibility. This is especially crucial as companies adapt usage-based pricing models to support Gen AI initiatives.

On October 30 at 8 am PT / 11 am ET, MGI Research will break down the newest 360 Ratings™ and share independent insights into which vendors are defining best-in-class revenue recognition.

Whether you’re evaluating new solutions or fine-tuning your close process, this session will help you:

• Identify top performers in ARM and understand what differentiates them
• Benchmark your current tech stack against the latest MarketLens™ findings
• See where innovation is happening across the ARM ecosystem

Vendors covered include Ayara, BillingPlatform, Certinia, Chargebee, Gotransverse, Maxio, Oracle NetSuite, RightRev, RecVue, Rillet, Sage, SAP, Tabs, Workday, Zone & Co., Zuora, and more.

Seats are limited—reserve your spot today:

CLM Buyer’s Guide for SMBs – 2025

Contracts are the backbone of every growing business but for many SMBs, contract management still means spreadsheets, inboxes, or siloed repositories. The result? Lost time, higher risk, and stalled growth.

CLM is no longer just for Fortune 500s. Small and midsize businesses are now investing in solutions that deliver speed, compliance, and measurable ROI across sales, procurement, HR, finance, and more. But with nearly 40% of first-time CLM buyers replacing their system within 36 months, choosing the wrong vendor can be costly.

The MGI Research 2025 CLM Buyer’s Guide for SMBs is your safeguard. This report delivers:

• Independent MGI 360 Ratings™ and MarketLens™ comparisons
• Practical insights into SMB-specific risks and requirements
• Guidance to finding the right fit for your organization
• Profiles of the 10 vendors that matter most for SMBs, including CobbleStone Software, Docusign, Ironclad, PandaDoc, Juro, and more

Whether you’re a business owner, rev ops leader, contracts manager, or investor, this guide provides the clarity you need to evaluate options, reduce risk, and make CLM a true growth enabler.