As artificial intelligence (AI) spreads, domestic and global software (SW) corporations are speeding up efforts to overhaul their business structures as their foothold narrows. Concerns are growing that the value of software as a service (SaaS) will decline as AI agents come to directly perform some functions that existing software used to provide.
According to the industry on the 17th, domestic and global software corporations are responding to market changes by building AI agent platforms on top of their SaaS products or expanding integrations with major AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.
HANCOM changed its name to Hancom in May for the first time in 36 years and declared it would break away from its existing identity as a "Korean-language document processing corporation" and leap into an AI corporation. The company judged that it would be difficult to survive in the AI era with document editing software represented by "Hangul Word Processor (HWP)" alone. Kim Yeon-su, Hancom CEO, said, "We will transform into a 'sovereign agentic operating system (OS)' corporation that oversees and coordinates the operation of AI agents." A sovereign agentic OS is a platform that integrates and manages multiple AI agents.
In the first half of this year, Hancom's AI product revenue reached 13.5 billion won, surpassing last year's annual AI revenue (8.9 billion won), indicating the beginnings of an AI transition payoff. The company plans to target the European market to expand its agentic OS business and raise AI-related revenue to 20% of the total. Recently, it decided to install its self-developed agentic OS in the firefighting robots of French robotics corporation Shark Robotics, and it agreed to cooperate with 7bulls, a nationally accredited research and development (R&D) institution in Poland, and AI corporation Algomine to develop a Europe-style sovereign agentic OS.
Global software corporations are also seeking paths to survive in the AI era. Salesforce, Inc., the world's No. 1 customer relationship management (CRM) software corporation, launched the AI agent platform "Agentforce" to automate customers' CRM tasks. Whereas existing CRM software was a tool used by people, Agentforce has AI agents perform real tasks in place of people. In line with this, the billing model was also changed from one based on the number of employees using the software to usage-based pricing according to the volume of work performed by AI agents.
In the first quarter of this year, Agentforce's annual recurring revenue (ARR) reached $1.2 billion (about 1.7 trillion won), more than tripling from a year earlier. The cumulative number of tasks performed by AI agents in Agentforce and the workplace collaboration tool Slack reached 3.8 billion. Marc Benioff, Salesforce, Inc. chief executive officer (CEO), said right after the May earnings release, "AI agents are a new source of increased platform usage," adding, "The economic model of software is growing."
Adobe has also expanded support for Adobe tools by linking with major AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Microsoft Copilot. Recently, Adobe released an "Adobe plug-in in ChatGPT" that enables 70 functions of its flagship products, including Photoshop, to be used within ChatGPT. When users request desired tasks in natural language in ChatGPT as if conversing, AI handles tasks such as photo editing, video production, design, and document creation on their behalf. As AI chatbots emerge as the key platforms for search and creative work, Adobe is strengthening cooperation with AI corporations as part of an ecosystem expansion strategy to prevent existing users from leaving and attract new users.
Atlassian, headquartered in Australia, also loaded the AI agent "Robo" into its existing collaboration software to automate complex tasks. As demand grew for the product lineup incorporating Robo, Atlassian recorded its highest profitability since 2021 in Apr.–Jun. this year (fiscal year 2026 fourth quarter). Workday also recently declared a transition into an AI corporation and unveiled "Sana," a superintelligent AI agent specialized in human resources, finance, and administrative tasks.
Fears of a so-called "SaaSpocalypse"—that AI will replace software—are driving these changes. In fact, this year, the stock prices of major software corporations such as Salesforce, Inc. and Adobe have fallen more than 20% on news such as the release of the latest AI models, and some SaaS startups have been sold at fire-sale prices, unable to avoid a decline in corporate value.
Recent mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the software industry have also fueled SaaSpocalypse concerns. Italy's software corporation Bending Spoons agreed this month to acquire the work and data management SaaS corporation Airtable for $1.285 billion. That amounts to about one-tenth of the $12 billion corporate value at which Airtable was evaluated when it raised investment funds in 2021, drawing attention as a transaction showing that the value of SaaS startups has fallen sharply in the AI era.
There is also an assessment that the rise of AI agents is threatening the subscription-based revenue model of software, widening the gap between corporations finding survival breakthroughs and those slow to respond, and accelerating the industry's "sorting the wheat from the chaff." George Brocklehurst, an analyst at market research firm Gartner, said, "AI agents will reshape how software is built, priced, and consumed," adding, "For existing software corporations to maintain competitiveness and secure growth opportunities, they must integrate AI agent capabilities into their products and strengthen their position in the value chain."