From Product-Market Fit to Relationship-Market Fit: the future of SaaS
What happens to software when AI can build a replica in a weekend?
Jump on LinkedIn or a tech podcast these days, and everyone's talking about what AI can do. But it seems fewer are asking what we'll still need software to do once AI can do almost everything.
We’re entering a strange new era where features no longer guarantee differentiation. With AI-generated workflows, no-code builders, and off-the-shelf UI kits, almost anyone can spin up an app that looks like yours, fast. And to most customer the difference between a duct-taped prompt stack and a finely tuned product isn't obvious.
So here’s the question SaaS companies need to face: If your product is easy to copy, what makes people choose it, and keep choosing it?
That’s not a floaty question. That’s a business risk. If your features are easily copied and your UI easily cloned, your value doesn’t live in your functionality anymore.
The answer, I believe, is what I call relationship-market fit.
Just like product-market fit is about finding a market that wants what you’ve built, relationship-market fit is about becoming the product users don’t want to live without because it’s tuned to how they think, work, and make decisions.
Why product alone is no longer enough
For decades, SaaS growth was fuelled by feature building. You shipped fast, added functionality, and scaled. But AI has flattened that playing field. Capabilities that once took months to build can now be cloned in hours meaning your defensibility isn’t in your feature set. It’s in how well your product fits into someone’s world.
It’s not about being the smartest tool. It’s about being the most attuned.
The EA as the prototype for relational software
A friend told me she’d rather lose a senior engineer on her team than her executive assistant.
"Because my EA is shaped around how I work," she said. "She gets me."
That’s it. That’s the moat.
It’s a striking parallel. In many ways, an EA is a kind of operating system for judgment, timing, and tone. They don’t just follow instructions, they pre-empt them. They remember not just what you said, but what you meant. And they adapt over time, learning your quirks and responding to your patterns.
If SaaS wants to stay relevant in a world of auto-generated tools and replicable functionality, it needs to think less like a platform, and more like an EA.
What does relational design mean?
While user-centricity and personalisation have been common goals for years, relational design when it comes to SaaS means asking a deeper question: how can software behave less like a tool and more like a trusted collaborator?
It includes:
Remembering context and preferences
Anticipating needs instead of reacting
Reducing choice fatigue by guiding action
Integrating naturally into existing workflows
Offering reassurance and interpretation, not just insight
It’s not just good UX. It’s a way of thinking about software as something that understands you and gets better the longer it works with you.
The tool that knows you wins
And while 'relationship-market fit' might not yet be a household phrase (yet) it's a helpful way to frame this shift. Just as product-market fit is about finding a market that wants what you’ve built, relationship-market fit is about becoming the product users don’t want to live without because it’s tuned to how they think, work, and make decisions.
Examples of this kind of relational intelligence are already showing up in nascent ways in some of the most loved SaaS tools.
Notion remembers your formatting habits and recommends templates based on your previous projects.
Slack adapts its notifications and sidebar based on how you interact with different channels.
Superhuman learns your email rhythm and prompts you with smart replies based on past behaviour.
These tools are moving in the right direction, toward contextual awareness, not just capability.
In a world of infinite tools and endless options, the most valuable ones aren’t necessarily the most powerful. They’re the ones that feel like they’re built for you. Not just in what they offer, but in how they behave, how they learn, and how they respond. SaaS companies have spent decades building features, but with AI, features are no longer enough. The next frontier isn’t functionality. It’s familiarity, it’s responsiveness, and it’s context.
Decision compression: a feature of relational design
When users are overwhelmed by options, whether from AI-generated dashboards or bloated product menus, they don’t need more functionality. They need help choosing. That’s where the concept of decision compression comes in.
Instead of showing users every possibility, the best SaaS products will say: Here are the three paths that matter. And here’s the one we’d choose if we were you.
That’s not just UX, that’s applied empathy. Not just narrowing the menu but recommending the meal. It’s software that interprets, prioritises, and simplifies, based not just on data, but on who the user is, how they work, and what they’ve done before.
That moment of guidance is the difference between churn and trust. Between abandonment and action. Because users don’t need tools that do more. They need tools that help them do less, better.
SaaS as ecosystem, not just software
The goal for SaaS isn't just to be used. It’s to be relied on. To become the kind of product that’s so embedded in the way someone works that switching feels like losing a teammate.
Imagine replacing an EA who’s been with you for years. You don’t just lose a task manager. You lose someone who knows what not to book after a red-eye flight, who blocks thinking time into your calendar without being asked, who knows when your energy dips, and when to slip in a snack break or buffer.
The handover isn’t just procedural. It’s relational. That’s the bar SaaS should aim for.
Because once a product has mapped itself to your quirks, patterns, and routines, switching doesn’t just mean finding something better, it means starting over. And that’s why people stick with software too, because the good ones start to feel like they’ve absorbed how you work.
What relationship-market fit really looks like
Great SaaS doesn’t just plug into your workflow, it syncs with your rhythm. It won’t simply be about habit, but about harmony. And that’s where the defensibility of relationship-market fit lies. It will offer solutions that:
Pick up on patterns
Make choices easier
Offer support without prompting
Help you move forward with fewer steps
And surface insight only when it matters
That’s not magic, that’s design. And it’s what people will pay for, even when AI makes everything else free.
