[tadfisher]

Sometimes your product's value is derived from how much time each user saves using your tool. In that case, charging per-seat aligns incentives for both parties.

If Zendesk charged per-message or per-issue, then the incentive for the customer is to use the product less, creating less value for both parties. They would be eaten by a product that charges per-seat and optimizes for efficiency.

AI pushes the equation toward a local maximum, but it's a fallacy to assume it will reduce the number of seats for which you can charge.