Agents are now cancelling software purchases. mckinsey's state of ai 2026 survey found 32% of…
agents are now cancelling software purchases. mckinsey's state of ai 2026 survey found 32% of organizations decided against buying at least one product because coding agents could build it in-house, and the rate approaches 50% among ai high performers.
the saas vendor's real competitor is the subscription the customer already has.
Context
The Register of 25 August 2026, on McKinsey's 2026 State of AI survey of 1,719 respondents, reports nearly a third saying their organizations decided against buying one or more software products or features in favor of building the functionality in-house with agentic coding tools. Yahoo Finance of 1 September 2026 gives 32 percent, and nearly half among high performers, defined as the 6 percent of respondents attributing at least 5 percent of EBIT to AI, against 31 percent of peers.
This is the share of respondents reporting a decision not to buy, self-reported and covering one or more products or features. It does not show cancellations of existing subscriptions, and cancelling in the note is the author's wording. It does not measure what was built or that agents caused the choice. McKinsey's own 2026 report was not read: its page returned the 2025 survey, so both figures are secondary. That agents are eating software purchases is the author's takeaway.
Related work
- Earlier note on the same survey ↗Same McKinsey survey.
Watch next
- McKinsey's 2026 report text for the exact question and denominator.
Sources
Provenance
The note above is reproduced unedited from the original post, first published on Threads on 20 September 2026 at 06:34 IST. Sources are the papers and datasets the note draws on.
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