Every breakthrough in tech is first misunderstood because we see it through the lens of the world it’s about to disrupt, for example, early cars replacing horse carriages.

But here's what many people get it wrong. You don't win by getting a better horse, you win by re-imagining the entire transportation.

The real problem

When cars first came out, horsepower was everything.

More power = Better machine

But then we got smarter. We realized cars aren't just about raw power, they're about the whole experience.

In a similar way, for decades, collections call centers ran on a very straightforward model.

More calls = More agents = More cost per agent

But leading companies now have AI agents that don't work like humans.

AI agents handle thousands of calls per day, ensure 100% compliance and adhere to strict guardrails. Plus, reduce the need for bottom level headcount by 66%, while retaining the top talent.

So when someone says "per agent pricing," what are we even talking about? The framework breaks.

Think infrastructure, not headcount

We don't price Kubernetes clusters by counting how many DevOps engineers they replaced. We price them based on what they actually deliver.

Aaron Levie from Box says, "We are on day one of agent adoption in the enterprise." AI agents are systems that give you:

• Always-on coverage
• Real-time scalability
• Consistent compliance
• Zero recruitment headaches or training costs
• Instant response time, during spikes in call volumes

Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce says: "We will be managing not only human workers but also digital workers." The man is running a $250B company, he sees what's coming.

Three pricing models that actually work

So how should AI agents be priced?

Usage-based: Minutes handled. Pay for what you use, when you use it. Perfect for seasonal card spikes (think tax-refund season).

Capacity-based: Reserve concurrent capacity, like cloud computing. Great for high-volume operations handling Black Friday-level traffic daily.

Outcome-based: Pay for every task completed. Ideal for collections where you only pay when promises-to-pay convert to actual payments.

The World Economic Forum says 2025 brings "exponential growth in AI capabilities.”

AI adoption is happening at unprecedented velocity. Yet most companies are still thinking linearly, counting agents like headcount.

The bottom line

Leaders like Aaron Levie are “building the architectures to support a future where pricing has dropped to basically zero, where quality has increased to basically infinite."

The entire economy is being re-architected for AI, and the old pricing models are already obsolete.

Let’s stop pricing AI agents in terms of digital headcount, and start pricing them for the value created.

Companies building systems for the future aren’t thinking of AI agents as a cost-cutting tool, rather they see it as an enabler and revenue multiplier.

{{cta-banner}}

TL;DR: You wouldn't price a Tesla by horsepower. Don't price AI agents by humans.