Mumbai/IBNS, Feb. 4 -- Zoho founder and Chief Scientist Sridhar Vembu has said that artificial intelligence is the "pin that is popping the inflated balloon" of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies, a disruption he claimed to have anticipated well before the current AI boom.

Vembu said he had earlier warned that the SaaS industry's heavy dependence on sales and marketing over core engineering and product development made many companies inherently vulnerable.

Responding to a user on X who remarked that SaaS companies were "continuing to get murdered," Vembu argued that both venture capital and stock market exuberance had sustained a fundamentally flawed business model for far too long.

In a note of introspection, the Zoho founder adde...