February 6, 2026
Popcorn, meet profit margins
Tell HN: I'm a PM at a big system of record SaaS. We're cooked
Big SaaS insider cries “we’re cooked” — commenters say margin wars, not magic bots
TLDR: An insider says big enterprise software is getting squeezed by rival vendors, cloud platforms, and AI labs. Comments split between “AI kills margins” and “bad product culture,” with marketing-skeptic spice — bottom line: the comfy, high-margin SaaS era might be ending, and everyone feels the heat.
An anonymous product manager at a giant “system of record” (think the software that runs HR, finance, and customer databases) dropped a bomb: big SaaS is cooked. Not by scrappy coders with “vibe” tools, but by rival vendors, cloud platforms, and AI labs racing to own business data and apps. Cue chaos in the comments. One camp, led by _diyar, says the real story is AI crushing margins and moats disappearing, with investors suddenly clutching their wallets. Another camp, like ezekg, fires back: the problem isn’t robots, it’s boring products and sales-led culture. “Don’t blame AI for this correction,” they snap.
The thread turned messy fast. ck_one asked the pragmatic question: why not just lock down the data and tell the labs to buzz off? Meanwhile, conspiracy sirens blared when BetaDeltaAlpha wondered if this was viral marketing for Anthropic or OpenAI. Popcorn.gif energy rose as folks argued whether big customers are stuck like IBM mainframe days, or ready to swap parts when a rival’s module is cheaper. The PM’s warning that cloud providers and AI labs are staking a claim over the whole stack — see OpenAI Frontier — had people linking back to the earlier flamefest: “AI Is Killing B2B SaaS”. The vibe? SoRs may survive, but the cozy margins are gone — and the labs brought knives.
Key Points
- •The author, a senior PM at a large California-based SoR SaaS firm, believes BigCo SoRs face a difficult outlook despite skepticism about “AI is killing B2B SaaS.”
- •Primary threats identified are rival SoR vendors, public cloud providers, and AI labs, not small AI startups or indie developers.
- •Overlapping long-tail products among SoR vendors will intensify competition, making enterprises more likely to switch within incumbent ecosystems for cost advantages.
- •Public clouds and AI labs aim to host business data, AI agents/LLMs, and critical apps, conflicting with SoR vendors’ AI platform strategies (citing OpenAI Frontier as illustrative).
- •SoR teams often lack rapid execution and cutting-edge AI expertise and face talent and compensation pressures (e.g., RSUs down ~50%), suggesting ongoing market corrections.