It's the end of the world as software companies know it, and this CEO feels fine.
Judging by what some AI experts are saying, and the state of the stock market, you'd think software companies were on their last legs. Basware CEO Jason Kurtz, whose company sells software for financial processes, sees it slightly differently.
"I will tell you there is not a single piece of data that we see that says that," said Kurtz.
"I have not had a single customer tell us, 'Oh, we're just going to go figure this out on our own and do AP with OpenAI or whoever.' That's not the way these companies work," he added.
Kurtz reached out to me last week after I asked for some reader feedback on the topic. (I genuinely read all your emails. Even the mean ones!)
Basware, which counts Mercedes and Heineken among its roughly 6,500 customers and uses AI within its own products, hasn't felt threatened thus far. Kurtz told me the company saw a 20% year-over-year increase in sales in 2025, primarily driven by a surge in the back-half of the year.
He acknowledged that there had been some customer chatter about experimenting with AI on their own. But more recently, clients just want results.
Kurtz recalled a conversation with the digital transformation officer of a large European company. After spending roughly a million euros on internal AI-related projects in finance over the past year, the executive told Kurtz they "can't point to a single penny that we have saved, earned, or helped our business in any way."
"I'm tired of experimenting. I want people who know how to use AI in our processes in our workflows," Kurtz said the executive told him.
I asked Kurtz for advice for fellow software companies looking to protect themselves.
Basware primarily works with AWS to help build its AI tools for customers. The company also has an "AI czar," according to Kurtz, to surveil the industry. Figuring out ways to implement AI into your own products that'll drive more value for customers is one way to stay ahead.
There's also strength in numbers. Kurtz said maintaining tight integrations with fellow vendors to become a part of the workflow creates stickiness.
"If we weren't doing that, I'd be even more paranoid," Kurtz said.
And then there's the data element. Basware has processed 2.5 billion invoices and 10 trillion euros of spend in the company's 40-year history. Having such a large swath of info can help train models and identify new efficiencies to pitch to customers.
"If you don't have a data strategy around AI and how you're going to use that to differentiate your AI and your capabilities, I think that's going to be a challenge," he said.