Futurecasting benefits from mingling multiple insights. Here we share a map (dare we say a concept blend) of 2026 predictions from Kyle Poyar at Growth Unhinged, Jason Lemkin from SaaStr, Tom Tunguz at Theory Ventures and Steven Forth from valueIQ and Ibbaka. By combining these four perspectives we came up with four new predictions.

1: The Rise of "Synthetic PLG" (Product-Led Growth)

2: The "Bifurcated" Sales Organization

3: "Dynamic Value Stacking" as the Foundation for Pricing

4: Corporate Branded Content as a "Data Moat"

What will happen in B2B pricing in 2026? Our predictions.

1. API pricing is generalized

2. Credit based pricing becomes the dominant model

3. Credit wallets become standard

4. Synthetic data becomes the normal way to explore

5. Pricing and value become transparent

6. Pricing of all enterprise applications goes down

7. Pricing of chatbots goes down

8. Pricing of agents goes up

9. Costs go up

Pricing decisions often require us to resolve contradictions, like higher price vs. higher market share or revenue optimization vs. profit optimization. Roger Martin’s approach to the ‘opposable mind’ suggests that such trade-offs are not always inevitable and that we can find more creative (integrative) solutions. By operating in markets with low cross price elasticity and low price elasticity of demand, and where what we sell has the characteristics of a Giffen good we can resolve the price/volume tradeoff and get higher volume with higher prices.

One of the open questions for SaaS and AI pricing in 2026 is the fate of user based pricing. In 2025 there was a lot of interest in credit based pricing. Towards the end of the year there has been pushback, with people as prominent as Marc Benioff from Salesforce predicting that user based pricing will prevail. We disagree. Credit based pricing provides a better answer to the questions of price predictability and price flexibility than does user based pricing. Over the long term, credit based pricing models will push out user based pricing.

How have AI pricing models changed in 2025?

Our 2024 post ‘The Evolution of AI Pricing Models: From Consumption to Hybrid and Generative Approaches’ has had more than 4,000 views! 3,000 of these in 2025.

AI is evolving rapidly. We test our predictions from 2024 to see what has happened in 2025.

The big trends that shaped pricing in 2025 were the emergence of vibe coding, the adoption of agents as a common way to package AI functionality and credit based pricing to price them. Ibbaka covered these trends in its most popular blog posts of 2025. Here are the top five for 2025 plus our top performing post overall.

Good Better Best packaging models remain common, even in the agentic AI space. At the same time, they are being priced using credit based pricing models. How do Good Better Best and credit based pricing interact? What are design approaches are emerging? We explore this critical pricing design question in this post.

Credit based pricing models are common for AI and agenticAI companies. Design of these models is becoming a critical skill for go-to-market and pricing teams. One of the key question when designing this model is how granular to make the credits. There is a tension between tracking cost and value and between simplicity and precision. Managing these tradeoffs is critical to the design of credit based pricing models.

Generative AI has up the stakes on pricing transparency. But there is more than one type of transparency. There is pricing transparency, pricing model transparency. and pricing process transparency.

With generative AI in the buying process companies will have explicit, machine readable, information on value, price and the process used to set prices publicly available.

Some companies have a pricing process and a pricing model.

Others make do with just a pricing model or just a pricing process.

And then there are those companies that make do with some form of ad-hoc pricing, sometimes very smart and adaptive, often more like a frozen accident.

Most of us need to have a pricing process that leads to a pricing model.

Pricing model - a system of equations used to set price.

Pricing process - a set of algorithms and heuristics used to set price.

AI SDRs, AI lead sourcing, AI lead qualification, AI sales rools … AI in the sales process is getting a lot of love. But the real change will be driven by AI in the buying process. How is AI being used in the buying process? How will this impact pricing? Do companies need to generate value and pricing in forms that are easy for AIs to consume and process? AI in the buying process will have a bigger impact than AI in the sales process.

On October 16 Brandon Hickie from LinkedIn and Companyon Ventures gave a compelling webinar on credit based pricing, why it is emerging as a dominant pricing model for AI applications and agents, and emerging best practices for implementation. Longer term, credit based pricing may change the techstack for pricing and billing management. Get a glimpse into the future.

Value models are central to best practices in pricing. In the real world though, there have been many obstacles to practical applications. Value models are too expensive, they take too much time to develop and they are hard to maintain. The expertise to apply them to real world problems is scarce. Generative AI changes all that, making what was scarce abundant. This removes one layer of contrastaints and we we are entering a new era where value models are widely available and easy to apply. What new constraints will this reval?

API management is a core part of the infrastructure in the agent economy. Ibbaka recently studied value in the API management category and uncovered some important ways APIs are creating value and competing with each other. The report includes a value map for the API management category and a design structure matrix (DSM) that shows the key clusters of functionality in this category.

Credit-based pricing is a hot topic with major software vendors integrating credit-based pricing into their pricing and monetization models. There are also some important objections.

1. This is just disguised cost-based pricing

2. Predictability of cost and revenue

3. Familiarity

4. Transparency

5. Revenue recognition

A well designed credit-based pricing model can address all of these.

Adoption of AI agents in the CRM category and the emergence of headless CRMs. This is the fifth installment in Ibbaka’s research of the adoption of agents by different categories of B2B software and the impact on pricing. One of the most interesting things happening here is the emergence of headless CRMs. Headless applications are the backend of an application without the UI. Vibe coding and agents are used to manage the user experience which can be customized for each company. Salesforce, Hubspot and Microsoft are leading the agent revolution in CRM.

Ibbaka has put together a stellar line up for its October webinars.

October 1, Wednesday, joint pricing industry leaders Augustin Manchon, Mark Stiving and Marcos Rivera for a wild conversation on how AI is transforming pricing roles.

October 16, Thursday, Brandon Hickie from LinkedIn and Companyon Ventures and Steven Forth will go deep into the credit based pricing model that is dominating AI and agent applications.

AI is already transforming pricing work and how it is carried out. A recent LinkedIn poll with more than 100 responses found that 80% of people expect AI to transform pricing roles. How will the roles transform? How will this transformation roll out? Here are some initial thoughts. Steven Forth, Marcos Rivera and Mark Stiving will discuss in a webinar on October 1, 2025.

Four perspectives on credit based pricing that will help you to make a decision on whether to adopt this pricing model and how other companies are succeeding (and sometimes failing). Includes insights from the four most important reports plus case studies with practical lessons. This is in preparation for an important webinar with Brandon Hickie of LinkedIn on October 16.

Credit based pricing models are increasingly common, especially with agentic AI. When should you choose this pricing model? What are the design goals? What are the key design decisions to be made? This post reviews the key questions about credit based pricing models and then proposes a step-by step guide to their design.