YCombinator Estimates 10x Larger Market for AI Agents Than SaaS

Virtual AI Agents are digital robots created with Artificial Intelligence that help them execute any digital task, such as marketing, sales, trading, portfolio balancing, making videos, animations, design engineering models, and a lot more, with just a command.
AI, Crypto, Voice of Crypto
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Key Insights:

  • YCombinator, a well-known startup accelerator, thinks that Virtual AI Agents can become 10x more valuable in the future than SaaS platforms.

  • In 2024, SaaS markets are estimated to be worth $250 billion.

  • Since it poses a direct survival risk to digital white-collar and blue-collar jobs, YCombinator thinks they might offer serious resistance to it.

YCombinator, one of the largest startup accelerators in the world, has estimated that the Virtual AI Agent market could be 10x bigger than SaaS markets. Though this estimate could be a wild guess, it still describes how the power of AI agents could revolutionize our world.

When developed, AI agents could be used for anything. They seem like a direct evolution of AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. They can also be instantly repurposed with a little modification to perform entirely different functions.

Opposed to these platforms, traditional AI LLM models like ChatGPT can only create conversations, code, and images; AI agents would be able to autonomously execute complex tasks like customer targeting and sales pitches, automate crypto trading with AI, create software packages, act as virtual companions and much more.

Harj Taggar, Managing Partner at YCombinator, thinks that AI agents' development has been so rapid that within the next few months, they can replace entire teams, even in large institutions.

Diana Hu, General Partner at YCombinator thinks that in the last few years there were only one or two players with sophisticated AI agents like OpenAI. However, lately, each industry has seen its own AI agent as new platforms come head to head.

YCombinator CEO Garry Tan believes that the markets created by AI agents could provide consumers with many choices and make entrepreneurs more flexible.

Here's the full video.

Software as a Service is one of the largest tech-driven markets that we have today. In 2024, SaaS markets are estimated to be valued at $250 billion. Top names in this space include Microsoft, Apple, Google, Canva, and a lot others.

Hesitancy in Current SaaS Giants Could Lead to their Demise

Large companies like Google and Microsoft only catch up to technology when it becomes obvious that there is no way around it. Failure to adopt is far more common in these cases due to inertia in decision-making that could disturb consistent revenue.

This is why OpenAI succeeded as the largest AI-based company before Microsoft eventually purchased a $10 billion stake in it. The same reason prevented Microsoft investors from embracing Bitcoin despite the latter giving a 68% YTD profit to MicroStrategy.

Jared Friedman, Managing Partner at YCombinator, thinks that due to this inertia, AI Agent startups could become much larger than SaaS giants such as Google and Microsoft. He adds Salesforce as an example of market churning creating new tech giants.

Roadblocks Ahead

No technology comes without roadblocks. The threat possessed by Virtual AI Agents could very well threaten the entire digital blue-collar and white-collar ecosystems. This is because AI agents could easily outrank even a hundred managers and a thousand workers.

Since the majority of decision-making takes place below the CXO level, implementing AI agents in any company of considerable size could become challenging.

YCombinator thinks that this threat could help them develop a bias against this technology. The team there suggests that business owners on the other hand would love these technologies as it helps them scale their operations while downsizing the workforce.

Disclaimer: Voice of Crypto aims to deliver accurate and up-to-date information but will not be responsible for any missing facts or inaccurate information. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile financial assets, so research and make your own financial decisions.

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