Home topics news News News ‘SaaS-pocalypse’ talk Is growing. One CEO says the real story is more complicated Yajush Gupta March 6, 2026 US software stocks are sliding and the term ‘SaaS-pocalypse’ is trending. Blackpearl CEO Nick Lissette tells why the real threat is losing sight of your fundamentals. What’s happening: Blackpearl Group Founder and CEO Nick Lissette is pushing back on panic in the tech sector following a slide in US software stocks tied to rapid AI agent adoption. Why this matters: For Australian and New Zealand tech businesses, from startups to established SaaS providers, the question of how AI agents reshape competitive markets is no longer theoretical. The term “SaaS-pocalypse” has been circulating in tech circles since recent advances in AI agents sent US software stocks into a slide. Nick Lissette, Founder and CEO of New Zealand-listed Blackpearl Group, has a more measured read on what is actually happening. “We are now living in an age of great uncertainty,” he says. “There will be something new emerging every day. That volatility isn’t going away. It’s the new normal.” But Lissette is not here to catastrophise. He is here to reframe. Not a shark, piranhas The immediate trigger for market jitters has been the rapid proliferation of AI agents. OpenClaw, one platform tracking this shift, has reportedly generated 1.5 million AI agents in just over three months. For SaaS businesses built on feature-based models, the implication is uncomfortable. “You no longer compete with one or two scaled rivals,” Lissette