CROSS-CATEGORY: Outcome-Based Pricing Convergence Across Support, CRM, and Marketing — Gartner Projects 40% Enterprise Adoption by Year-End

PYMNTS·high signal

Gartner now projects 40% of enterprise SaaS contracts will include outcome-based components by end of 2026, up from ~15% in 2022. The convergence is happening simultaneously across unrelated categories: Intercom charges $0.99 per AI-resolved support ticket, Zendesk AI Agents charge $1.50-$2.00 per automated resolution, Salesforce uses AI credits per agent action, and HubSpot moved to a Credits consumption model. Chargebee's 2025 State of Subscriptions data shows 43% of companies already use hybrid models (seat-based adoption fell 21%→15% in 12 months, hybrid surged 27%→41%), with pure hybrid adoption projected to reach 61% by year-end.