Slava Shafir

Following several high-profile industry developments, SaaS's dominance in the enterprise productivity space is increasingly being challenged by large language models and agentic AI capabilities. For private equity investors, this debate goes far beyond hype. It raises critical questions about portfolio resilience, pricing models, defensibility, and where the next wave of technology value will be created. In this session, value creation leaders will challenge some of the prevailing narratives around AI and SaaS and explore what this shift could mean for operators and investors.

• Will AI agents replace the Saas model?

• Is the SaaS "seat-based" model breaking? How to increase the gross margins as companies shift from SaaS to AI based models?

• Are companies shifting the "Buy" vs "Build" strategies?

• How will AI-enhanced products adapt through new pricing, contracting and commercialisation models?

• Where will the next generation of defensible software companies emerge?

Does private equity create more value by empowering management autonomy or by enforcing operational mandate? Do PE timelines inherently conflict with long-term company health? Can management team activate value creation without operating partners?

In this brand-new big debate format, we will openly debate some of these most contentious topics between PE and Portco management teams to get further clarity on the dynamics for value creation.