I was looking at some data with a few colleagues on the makeup of SaaS companies built on AI (meaning they've woven AI into all their processes an built their company this way from th ground up) and SaaS companies not built on AI.

A couple take-aways:

The departments where AI replaces all/most people:

• Marketing
• Sales
• Success/Support
• Finance
• HR
• Executive leadership
  

We were musing that cutting way back on Finance and HR can't be sustainable due to legal liabilities that are bound to ensue. The thought is that these companies expect to be acquired fast and early. Though if you have so few people in your org, there are fewer people to manage/pay.

Also there is something to be said about that personal touch 👩🏻 in customer-facing roles, especially revenue generating ones, so as revenue grows, those departments start slowing ticking up which, in-turn, cause operational departments to slowly grow.

Executive leadership is interesting... it's way too optimistic to think that AI could be the great equalizer in wealth, but it's a nice dream to have. Also, this is against my best interests since I'm in executive leadership 😬🙈🤣.

Engineering was leaner at the AI-first companies, but not non-existent. This tracks with my take, which is that AI is not at the point where it can replace engineering and GenAI never will be. It can augment engineering and make them more efficient, but IMHO, GenAI will never be able to build secure, maintainable SaaS applications.
- Websites: yes.
- E-commerce Sites: maybe.
- Prototypes: sure, but only if you are OK that it will be mostly throw-away code.

My unpopular take (and you can quote me on this):

😱 AI prototypes are today's vaporware 😱

But here's the most interesting part

The one department that had no material difference in staff between AI-first and non-AI-first companies:
💪🏼Product 💪🏼

This surprised me at first, but after some thought, it made complete sense:

• ♟ GenAI will never be strategic
• 🧠 GenAI can help brainstorm, but can't make decisions

‼️and perhaps most important‼️

• 👩🏻‍🔬 GenAI will never be able to invent new things.
  

And so if you are lucky enough to have found yourself in product management, congratulations! 🙌🏽 🍾🥳 You have picked one of the most AI-proof careers**.

**This is IFF all companies value product management and not all do, but those that try to replace you with AI will undoubtedly fail and then we can all feel smug in their downfall.