From SaaS Sprawl to AI Control? Hexaware’s Zero License Aims to Disrupt the Economics of Software

If you launch an offering called Zero License aimed at eliminating SaaS sprawl in a week when software market valuations took a hammering, dubbed by financial analysts the SaaSpocalypse, it either reflects the Zeitgeist or is an alignment of the stars. The selloff wasn’t random. It was a direct reaction to Anthropic rolling out materially more capable automation through Claude Cowork, especially via plugins that move beyond copilots into actually executing workflows across legal, compliance, and core business operations. The market read that as a line-crossing moment. If AI can execute workflows, what exactly are we still paying SaaS vendors for? Investors didn’t wait for earnings revisions. They repriced the risk immediately, and that repricing showed up as aggressive selling across the software sector. Thus, Hexaware’s launch of Zero License is more Zeitgeist than anything else, because the other big discussion in the industry is the challenge for organizations to capture business value from their often steep investments in AI. PAC sat down with Hexaware’s leadership to discuss the initiative’s context and plans.

Let’s start by looking at the initiative in more detail. In a nutshell, Zero License helps enterprises reduce software licensing costs, eliminate manual effort, and simplify complex application stacks by making AI agents the primary execution layer. This isn’t about AI replacing SaaS stacks overnight. It’s about identifying high-impact areas where building Agentic AI capabilities makes sense, then moving quickly and safely. Siddarth Dhar, Hexaware’s Global Head of AI, asked the pertinent question: “Why are you paying subscription fees for workflows that are not adding differentiated business value?” Zero License targets non-core SaaS deployments, from workflow automation to transactional middleware to reporting dashboards, focusing on deterministically extracting their embedded logic. These are then rebuilt as cloud-native microservices or agents, delivering measurable ROI in roughly 90 days. But again, this is Zeitgeist rather than opportunism, as Dhar made clear: “This is not anti-SaaS rhetoric. You can’t go and attack SAP on day one, but you can attack Appian, MuleSoft, and Tableau. Those applications are all peripheral to the core. And as you attack the periphery, you will get experience. You will get the confidence that you need to attack the core. Attacking the core is like climbing Mount Everest. It takes a lot of training and a lot of energy at the base camp before you get there.”  What is missing in Hexaware’s messaging thus far is whether this is application rationalization under a new name? Is this the return of the RPA promise with better tooling? Or is it a hook to get on the Agentic AI journey?

Hexaware shifts the focus from tools and capabilities to outcomes

Against this background, how could Zero License help organizations capture business value from their AI investments? First and foremost, it shifts the focus from tools and capabilities to outcomes. As Dhar puts it: “With Zero License, AI isn’t another tool in the stack. It’s the execution surface.” Business value is captured not by generating insights or automating fragments, but by having AI perform the work that previously required human effort or layered tooling. Furthermore, the approach treats AI as an operating layer rather than just a bolt-on. The intent is to progress toward end-to-end automation in use cases including claims and prior authorization in healthcare, intake, triage, and adjudication in insurance, or KYC, onboarding, and reconciliation in banking. Figure 1 summarizes the commercial implications of both models.

Figure 1: Commercial comparison of the traditional SaaS model with the Zero License approach

The initiative’s business logic is compelling because organizations are eager to scale their AI deployments while still struggling to manage software costs effectively. Expanding FinOps into the non-deterministic world of Agentic AI is the next logical step for the industry. However, given the nascent state of Agentic AI adoption, Hexaware needs to:

• Highlight the successful operationalization of Agentic AI with clear business-centric KPIs.
• Demonstrate how it is addressing the challenge of operating model reimagination and solving the last-mile challenge.
• Reassure customers that this is not just throwing the RPA playbook at them.
• Show that ServiceNow and Appian workflows are not the next mainframes.

SaaS is not dead, but parts of it may become economically irrational

But we can’t close this analysis without circling back to the “SaaS is dead” assertion. First and foremost, SaaS isn’t dead. But parts of it may become economically irrational. SaaS survives. But its pricing power may not. The periphery is now contestable. And that’s where margin used to live. Secondly, valuations by financial analysts are no indicator for market developments. Enterprises buy software with a long-term horizon, and procurement organizations ensure that, despite the explosion of AI, changes in buying behaviors are excruciatingly slow. And lastly, AI isn’t a singular rollout. Rather, it is a phased transformation, much like the shift from steam to electricity on the factory floor. Hexaware’s Zero License approach is one sharp arrow in the strategic quiver to accelerate that transformation.