Software has fundamentally changed the way we record, store, and share information. Its next act is to fundamentally change the nature of our economy, capturing trillions of dollars of value in the process.

In this talk from the 2025 a16z LP Summit, a16z General Partner Alex Rampell discusses the history of filing cabinets and databases, how SaaS pricing moved from seats to outcomes, and how AI agents will accelerate the trend of the last 70 years of software progress.

Timecodes:
0:00 Introduction
0:27 Historical Context: Automation and Labor
3:25 The Filing Cabinet Era: Digitizing Records
4:12 Case Studies: Software Transforming Industries
8:39 The SaaS Business Model and Its Limits
11:41 Labor Market Scale vs. Software Market
12:19 The Shift: Software Doing the Job
15:44 Case Study: Job Opening
18:11 Real-World Examples: AI in Action
21:01 The Human Element: Demoralizing Jobs & Language
22:52 Market Expansion: New Opportunities with AI
26:02 Conclusion: The Future of Software and Labor

Resources:
Follow Alex on X: https://x.com/arampell

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