In a recent episode of Unpack Pricing, Metronome’s CEO, Scott Woody, and Head of Marketing, Chris Kent, discussed the shifts that are transforming software pricing today. Their conversation comes hot on the heels of the release of Metronome’s whitepaper: The Monetization Operating Model whitepaper. Their discussion unpacked how AI is rewriting the rules of value, and what companies must do to keep up.

Three eras of software pricing

If you’ve been paying attention, you know that pricing has always been tied to how software delivers value, and that we’re in a new era that’s upturning legacy ideas about software’s value and how to price it.

• The Software Era: A time when value was ownership. Customers bought licenses and installed software locally.
• The Access Era: When SaaS shifted value to collaboration. Subscriptions mapped revenue to the number of people with access to the software.
• The Value Era: You are here. AI has completely changed value again. Software no longer just provides access; it performs work.

As Scott put it: “AI was kind of shifting the fundamental value prop of what software is away from this idea of seats and ‘everyone in my org has access to data’ to this world where AI was doing work on your behalf.”

This shift makes outcome- and usage-based pricing more attractive, and necessary.

Why seat-based pricing no longer fits

The seat model breaks down when AI agents do the work. Customers see little reason to buy multiple licenses when one login could give the whole team access. Sellers, meanwhile, face rising infrastructure costs without corresponding revenue growth.

“The seat model doesn’t really fit that,” said Scott. “I actually think my value is more proportional in how much work this thing is doing for me.”

And it’s key to note that this isn’t just seller-driven. Customers are demanding pricing that reflects value more directly. As Scott noted, “For the company, it helps manage costs and maps to more value. For the customer, it better fits the value. And so in some sense, they’re both demanding it from each other at the exact same time.”

The organizational ripple effect

Changing the unit of value touches every part of the business. Marketing must shift its messaging. Sales has to adapt comp models. Finance must forecast variable revenue. Product teams need to build in customer-facing cost controls.

Scott didn’t mince words when it comes to the impact: “It’s actually easier to name people inside of a company that aren’t affected by the shift to usage than it is to say which ones are.”

This is where the Monetization Operating Model becomes critical. It outlines the people, processes, and tools companies need to operationalize value-based monetization without breaking downstream systems.

Pricing as a product

One of the strongest points Scott raised is that companies need to treat pricing with the same rigor they bring to their core product. “If you build a really great product, but it doesn’t monetize, or you don’t capture the value in the market. Ultimately what you’re doing is running a charity or a debt startup.”

So what does it mean to treat pricing as a product? It means giving pricing:

• Ownership: Someone accountable for strategy and execution
• Iteration: The ability to test and adapt continuously
• Instrumentation: Telemetry that shows how customers respond

This echoes the guidance you see in the whitepaper: that pricing should be managed like any other customer-facing surface, with roadmaps, feedback loops, and dedicated teams.

Building trust through predictability, visibility, and control

There’s an analogy Scott uses to help illustrate another key concept: utility companies are the wrong model for usage-based pricing, he says. Their bills are opaque, unpredictable, and uncontrollable—everything customers won’t accept in software.

Instead, he argues that companies must build monetization experiences that deliver:

• Predictability: Help customers anticipate spend.
• Visibility: Give them real-time usage dashboards.
• Control: Let them set budgets and alerts.

Failing to provide these features, he warned, is just a subpar product.

Monetization as competitive advantage

As AI accelerates commoditization, companies can’t rely on features alone. Chris, Head of Marketing at Metronome, pointed out the broader stakes as the podcast closed, the broader stakes: “I also think that like pricing monetization is going be, if not the biggest, one of the biggest levers that companies can either have a competitive advantage or at least drive to a better outcome than maybe their competitors.” The way companies monetize—how well they align pricing with value, how seamlessly they enable adoption, how confidently they scale—will increasingly determine who wins.

The stakes for leaders

This episode of Unpack Pricing made one thing clear: the Value Era is here. Companies that continue to monetize in old ways will struggle. Those that treat pricing as a product, build monetization infrastructure that scales, and deliver predictability, visibility, and control to customers will thrive.

As Scott put it, “Getting monetization right is the difference between having hockey-stick growth and no growth—or a dead company.”

Listen to the full conversation and download The Monetization Operating Model whitepaper to learn more.