Creatio just made unlimited licensing the default for its enterprise clients. We’ve already covered the specifics of that announcement and what it means in practical terms. But the more interesting question is bigger than one vendor’s pricing update.
If AI changes how businesses scale, does software pricing stop being anchored to headcount and start being anchored to execution instead?
That’s what makes Creatio’s latest move worth paying attention to, even if you’re not a Creatio client.
The Old Saas Pricing Logic Is Starting To Strain
Enterprise software is still mostly priced as though value scales with users. More people using the platform usually means more licences, more cost, and more vendor revenue. The logic made sense when the primary unit of work inside software was a human being operating a screen.
In Creatio’s partner webinar, CEO Katherine Kostereva challenged the durability of that logic directly, saying she is “pretty confident” that seat count “will not be growing” going forward, even if she is not predicting a dramatic absolute decline.
If that is true, the commercial question changes. The issue is no longer just how many people need access to the platform. It becomes how much useful work the platform can help the business execute, and how that work should be priced.
What Creatio Has Actually Changed
Most of the market has already reached a fairly stable position on AI pricing. The standard model today is still per-user or per-agent access, with AI charged separately on top. Salesforce, Microsoft, HubSpot, Zendesk, and others are all experimenting with credits, conversations, resolutions, and capacity-based pricing for AI features, but they are mostly doing so on top of an access-led commercial foundation rather than replacing it.
So, the interesting thing about Creatio is not that it also charges for AI. Everyone is doing that in some form. The more interesting thing is that Creatio appears to be testing a different anchor entirely.
Their model reduces friction around access itself. The logic is not simply “buy seats, then add AI.” It is closer to: “give the business broader platform access, broader module access, and broad participation in workflows, then make AI usage the variable layer on top”. In the webinar materials, that logic is framed around unlimited access to users, workflows, products, portal usage, and wider platform capability, while AI Actions remain the separate variable.
This matters because it fits a different view of how software creates value. Instead of monetising software mainly through access, it starts to monetise the intelligent work the platform performs. Creatio’s move from token-style AI pricing to AI Actions is important in that context. The value is not just that AI is billable. It is that Creatio has tried to replace a technical pricing unit with one that is easier for buyers to understand and easier to relate to business activity.
A much smarter commercial story than asking buyers to think in tokens.
Why This Is Bigger Than One Vendor Announcement
It’s not about whether AI gets charged for separately, or whether credits and actions are becoming common; they already are.
The real question is whether the user seat stops being the centre of software economics.
Bain’s view is useful here. Their analysis argues that if customers need fewer humans to operate software, the economics of pricing based on headcount starts to fall apart. Per-seat pricing is not dead, but the commercial logic underneath it is weakening in environments where AI is doing more of the actual work.
That is exactly the tension Creatio’s new pricing model speaks to.
If businesses use AI to increase output without increasing headcount at the same pace, then user count becomes a weaker proxy for value. In that world, broader platform access with execution priced separately starts to make more commercial sense.
Creatio has not defined the future on its own. But it may be one of the clearest examples yet of a vendor asking the next serious pricing question rather than just adding another AI surcharge to a conventional seat model.
The Market Is Moving Toward Hybrid Pricing, Not Pure Unlimited
This is where buyers need to stay disciplined.
Broader access sounds attractive, but it does not guarantee better value. It only works if the workflows behind it are well designed and if the business actually uses that wider access to improve operations. The commercial risk does not disappear. It just moves.
If AI usage becomes the variable layer, buyers still need to understand what counts as a billable action, how quickly usage could scale, how costs will be monitored, and who owns that governance internally. Other vendors are already having to build more visibility into these models because AI execution pricing can create cost volatility if left unmanaged.
There is also a simpler point in that many vendors will not rush away from seat economics because seats are familiar, predictable, and procurement-friendly. Salesforce, Microsoft, and others are experimenting with AI monetisation, but they are mostly layering it onto existing access-led pricing rather than replacing it. The mainstream market will likely settle on a hybrid, not a wholesale shift. What Creatio is doing is testing where the balance point lands. So, this should be treated as a serious signal, not a settled conclusion.
What Buyers Need To Watch Next
For software buyers, the more useful question is no longer just “what does a user cost?” It is a set of harder questions:
- What is the real commercial anchor in this model?
- Is the vendor still fundamentally charging for access, even if the packaging sounds simpler?
- If access becomes less constrained, what becomes the new source of cost?
- If AI is the variable, how will usage be forecast, reviewed, and governed?
- Does this model fit how the business expects to scale over the next three years?
From our perspective, this is not a single-platform issue. We work across Creatio, Maximizer, Infor, and Pipedrive, and the pricing debate is being pushed hardest by the vendors investing most aggressively in AI and workflow execution. But the questions it raises apply to any business evaluating CRM and workflow platforms right now.
The right pricing model is not the most fashionable one. It is the one that fits the client’s operating model, workflow design, governance maturity, and appetite for variable cost.
“The interesting part of this isn’t that AI is now being charged for separately. Most of the market is already doing that. The bigger question is whether user count remains the right commercial anchor for software in the years ahead. If businesses can scale output faster than headcount, then pricing will need to reflect execution and value differently. Creatio’s move is interesting because it appears to be testing that logic more directly than most.”
Max Watkins, Managing Director,
Collier Pickard
Why This Makes Consultancy More Important, Not Less
There is a natural assumption that simpler, broader access means less need for guidance. We believe that the opposite is true.
When the licensing barrier drops, the implementation question gets bigger. More users can participate, more modules are available, more workflows can be automated, and AI agents can be deployed across the business. None of that happens well on its own.
If a business moves from a constrained seat model to unlimited access, someone still needs to determine which workflows to automate first, which departments to bring onto the platform, which AI model to apply to which process, and how to govern execution costs as AI usage scales. The licensing decision gets simpler, but everything that follows gets more complex.
That is why this shift does not reduce the need for expert consultancy; it increases it. The value moves from helping clients navigate licensing negotiations to helping them design, implement, and govern the systems that broader access makes possible.
“Broader platform access sounds simple, but it only creates value if the workflows behind it are well designed. If more users can take part without licence friction, that can be a genuine advantage. But it also means implementation, governance, and ongoing optimisation become even more important. Otherwise, you just remove one constraint and create another somewhere else.”
Ollie Bartlett, Co-Owner,
Collier Pickard
Our Final Thoughts
Creatio’s FY27 announcements matter for more than roadmap reasons.
They may be one of the clearest signs yet that the next software pricing debate will not be about whether AI costs extra. It will be about whether software should still be priced mainly around who has access, or increasingly around what the platform helps the business get done.
That is a bigger question than one vendor announcement. And it is one that every software buyer should be watching closely.
If you’re evaluating CRM platforms and want to think through how these pricing shifts affect your decision, we’re always happy to have that conversation.
