TL;DR
The enterprise software market is fracturing along the lines of workflow integration and creative utility, signaling a rapid acceleration away from traditional seat-based licensing. While legacy data directories face severe revenue downgrades and workforce reductions due to buyer confusion over AI implementation, creative platforms are successfully enforcing consumption-based credit frameworks that drive immediate upsells. This divergence highlights that software value is shifting from pure data access to the creative and development frontends.
The Divergent Fates of Data Providers vs. Creative Platforms
The transition to AI-native workflows is widening the gap between legacy data directories experiencing severe purchasing friction and creative platforms capitalizing on cheaper software execution.
"LLMs have given go-to-market teams a simpler interface to work with data and build custom revenue workflows without heavy technical support... traditional seats tied to application model will come under pressure..." — ZoomInfo's Strategic Pivot
"When execution is cheap, design and creativity are the edge... The bottleneck has shifted away from can we build it and toward can we imagine something that's worth building." — Figma: Re-accelerating to 46% Growth
+1
When enterprise buyers hesitate due to organizational uncertainty, commoditized data directories suffer immediate downmarket contraction, as seen in ZoomInfo's 11% decline in downmarket contract value reported on its Q1 2026 earnings call. Meanwhile, platforms that sit at the very beginning of the creative lifecycle thrive because lower development costs dramatically increase the volume of concepts that need to be designed and prototyped, helping Figma accelerate its revenue growth to 46% year-over-year Figma: Re-accelerating to 46% Growth+1.
What to watch: Whether ZoomInfo's upcoming credit transition can stabilize its declining downmarket contract values or if customer purchasing pauses will continue to drag down overall revenues.
The Structural Realignment to Consumption and Credit-Based Pricing
The death of traditional per-seat licensing is accelerating as enterprise software leaders enforce strict credit-based limits to monetize generative AI usage.
"On March 18, we began implementing AI credit limits for all of our seats and have been very encouraged by the usage trends we've seen since then. As of the end of April, over 75% of users on our Org and Enterprise plans who were previously over their credit limit continued to use credits..." — Figma: Re-accelerating to 46% Growth
"We plan to roll out a hybrid pricing model later in Q3 that pairs a low annual platform fee with pre-purchase credits rather than our traditional seat-based packages." — ZoomInfo's Strategic Pivot
Transitioning users to consumption-based credits is proving to be a highly effective monetization lever rather than a driver of customer churn, as confirmed by Figma's successful March rollout detailed in its official press release. When software provides undeniable workflow value, enterprises are willing to pay significant premiums to keep generative features active, forcing legacy players to adopt similar hybrid credit structures to protect their average contract values.
What to watch: How successfully ZoomInfo can transition its revenue base to a targeted 50-50 mix of seat and credit-based pricing over the next year.
Dissolving Boundaries via Model Context Protocols
The traditional boundary between design environments and development pipelines is dissolving as open integration protocols allow automated coding tools to interact directly with enterprise design assets.
"Crucially, enterprise customers spending >$100,000 in ARR who use Figma's MCP server expanded their Full seats at a rate approximately 70% faster than those who do not use the MCP server." — Figma: Re-accelerating to 46% Growth
Instead of automated coding tools replacing human seats, the ability of development software to read and write directly to design assets makes the core design platform more valuable to the broader organization, according to Figma's SEC filing. This tight integration pulls developers deeper into the design environment, accelerating seat expansion rather than compressing it.
What to watch: Whether other enterprise collaboration suites can successfully launch their own Model Context Protocol servers to drive similar cross-functional seat expansion among engineering teams.
What surprised us
- The transition to paid AI credits was practically painless for Figma. Despite fears of user backlash when Figma enforced strict credit limits, over 95% of users who had previously exceeded their limits remained active on the platform by the end of April Figma: Re-accelerating to 46% Growth
- Procurement confusion is causing a massive polarization of software budgets. Rather than a uniform slowdown, we are seeing a sharp split: ZoomInfo slashed its full-year guidance as buyers paused procurement ZoomInfo's Strategic Pivot
, while Figma's new Professional team conversions surged over 150% year-over-year Figma: Re-accelerating to 46% Growth
- ZoomInfo's structural defense required a brutal operational sacrifice. To maintain its adjusted operating margin during its transition to a credit-based pricing structure, the company was forced to lay off 20% of its workforce—approximately 600 roles—and shut down its entire R&D operation in Israel ZoomInfo's Strategic Pivot