Shrivu Shankar argues that the traditional SaaS business model is shifting toward becoming a "harness" that surrounds an AI model. In this broader definition, a harness encompasses all the infrastructure, interfaces, context, and state required to make a stateless Large Language Model (LLM) productive.
The SaaS business model is evolving into an "AI harness" around models
As this trajectory progresses, the role of software services is expected to change. Instead of humans using software to perform tasks, companies will increasingly operate harnesses where core tasks are handled by background agents. In this model, the primary "product" becomes the model's output, while the company provides the domain knowledge, tooling, permissions, and human-facing review interfaces.
This shift implies an inversion of traditional organizational structures. Instead of humans using tools, humans become part of the harness, providing "taste" and judgment where it is most needed—such as reviewing architectural decisions, product demos, or UI designs generated by agents. For companies, differentiation may increasingly depend on their ability to construct a superior harness, specifically through how the system learns, integrates with existing systems, and interfaces with human expertise.
Sources
- The Harness Is the Company （Hacker News Frontpage, 2026-10-02）