York IE State of the Industry: Pricing in the Age of AI
Pricing models are evolving fast, usage-based revenue is gaining ground, and outcome-based pricing is still
taking shape. Hear how growth investors and operators are rethinking monetization, and what it means
for how software companies get valued.
56 minutes
Originally aired September 2026
Key Takeaways from Event
In the fourth edition of our State of the Industry series, we brought together leaders from Volition Capital, M33 Growth, Juicer and York IE to talk about how AI is reshaping pricing, packaging and the way investors value software businesses.
Price to the value you actually deliver.
The fundamentals still hold: understand how customers get value from your product and where their economic trigger sits, then price to that metric. Buyers are now comfortable with models beyond seats, which gives companies room to price in a way that tracks the value they create.
Usage-based revenue is becoming a proof point for value.
Charging for results is attractive to both sides, and it works especially well where outcomes are clearly measurable, like ROAS in adtech. The strongest approach is optionality: outcome-based pricing for customers who want it, a fixed-price path for those who value predictability, and a model simple enough for your sales team to explain with confidence.
Outcome-based pricing shines where results are provable.
AI SDRs and inbound automation are widely deployed, but customer success, deal desk, and expansion workflows remain largely untapped.
Niche expertise and proprietary data are the moat.
The AI companies built to last pair deep domain knowledge with mission-critical data that gets more valuable as customers use it. The best products put AI to work behind the scenes, so users simply get better outcomes and faster decisions.
Price for the customers you want to grow with.
Pricing is a lever for focus. Setting your price around your most valuable customers keeps your sales team on the accounts that stick and expand. And when you roll out AI features, an upfront conversation about willingness to pay sets the relationship up for long-term success.
Go deeper into value creation data
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