A new year has just begun, and we can’t wait to see what it brings… So much so, we invited a variety of SaaS organizations and experts to help us predict what the next 12 months have in store for our favorite sector.

Some of our respondents were a little on the shy side, so you’ll find some radical and insightful quotes attributed to ‘anon’. But if you ask us,  it only adds to the air of psychic mystery.

Popular predictions include:

So without further ado, *imagine us hunched over a crystal ball with our eyes closed for this part*, let’s take a look into the future…

AI and automation will play a bigger role in the sector

“AI and automation will scale and replace repeatability while giving organizations the elasticity to focus on high-impact initiatives”. - Anon
“In my opinion, we’ll see more SaaS solutions trying to add AI to their products. Also, I would expect more vertical SaaS solutions to appear in the market. - Anon
“I think more SaaS solutions will increase their integrations, as users are already using many tools and would like to make those tools “talk” with each other.” - Tigran Hakobyan, Director of Marketing at SuperAnnotate

More SaaS companies will employ machine learning

55% of the SaaS professionals we surveyed utilize, or are planning to utilize, machine learning in 2022.

Office-life as we know it is no more

“I predict we’ll see an increase in social and collaborative functions in SaaS due to remote working.”  - Anon
“Remote and hybrid working. If companies are still swimming against the current on this, it's not going to fare well. This is the new normal.” - Anon
“Decision-makers will double down on what worked for them during their time of uncertainty as they gear up for a hybrid working future.” - Anon
“I think we’ll see more tech that’s focused on keeping office employees connected with remote employees on a level playing field as hybrid offices become the most popular structure.” - Anon

Complementary add-ons are set to soar

68% of the organizations we polled plan on introducing complementary add-ons to their existing platforms in 2022.

SaaS is here to stay

“Platforms that proved indispensable or most flexible during the pandemic will grow. - Anon
“Increased consolidation in H2. Early SaaS companies will start to get offers from SPACs who raised funds and are fighting for earlier and earlier companies to acquire.” - Anon
“Evolution is at the core of this industry. It can be steered in many different directions, however, I strongly hope that the SaaS industry continues to make connections across the industry to grow. All the while being cautious of the importance of data security and management in the process.” - Anon
“Lots more dependency on SaaS platforms, especially as companies struggle to determine the business models - in-office and out-of-office approaches, while COVID continues to be a concern.” - Anon

Even more innovation

“We’ll see more tools for aggregation come out and less fake AI/ML claims.” - Andre Wang, Co-Founder of Keelling
“I think we’ll see more SaaS organizations adopt a mobile-first approach.” - Anon
“I predict we'll see even further demand for product marketers in SaaS, driven by increasing commoditization and the need to differentiate.” - James Doman-Pipe, Product Marketing at Remote
“I think we can expect to see more single sign-on adjacencies for B2B enterprise customers. Blockchain-based token economies and tools to enable and manage transactions on top of them.” - Varoon Jain at Poseidon Growth Consulting
“I predict a shift to progressive web apps and low-code platforms.” - Anon

Content output will increase in 2022

A whopping 97% of the organizations we surveyed planned to increase their content output over the next 12 months. The most popular medium was blog posts (48%) and then video (21%).

“SaaS players will need to invest a lot more in first-party data and privacy to comply with new regulations. As they’ll lose more and more efficiency from paid media (due to less ability to target at scale), they’ll have to invest more in interactive/diverse content formats to capture first-party audiences and keep their marketing performance.” - Diego Gomes, CEO of Rock Content

Data will be anything but predictable

“Omnichannel analytics will start to catch up to omnichannel marketing and service.” - Anon
“B2B buyer personas will begin to sway with the impact of millennials and Gen Z as a viable and influencing contributor to SaaS purchases. The data will be anything but predictable, but foundational for the next round of the impact of the digital generations.” - Sharon Maxfield, Solutions Engineer at 360insights.com

So there you have it - our predictions for 2022.

Did any catch you by surprise? Fancy a chat about it? Find us on the Future of SaaS Slack community, we’re always up for a good debate.

Oh, and Happy New Year! 🎉