Rethinking Monetization for Usage, AI, and Compliance

Welcome to the July 2025 edition of the Monetization Minute, a monthly guide to smarter billing and revenue strategy.

AI is turning software from a fixed cost product into pay-as-you-go, making static seat pricing feel out of step with how value is delivered. Firms combining subscriptions with flexible usage- or outcome-based charges are growing faster and building greater trust—powered by agile billing. 

🔄 Beyond Software Upgrades—What “Rethinking Monetization” Really Means

Rethinking monetization requires more than a system swap. It calls for a clear redefinition of value, pricing architecture, and a revenue scale. The shift is well underway: OpenView’s SaaS Benchmarks show a 40 percent surge in usage-based pricing over the past three years, while hybrid models that mix subscriptions with consumption have become the go-to choice for SaaS and AI providers adapting to complex buyer needs. 

Bain & Company reinforces this trend, urging SaaS providers to adopt outcome-based pricing models that align charges with customer value and drive scalable, margin-rich growth. Two forces are accelerating the change:

• Externally, customers want pricing linked to outcomes, usage, or transparent tiers—never arbitrary seat counts.
• Internally, companies juggling multiple product lines, global rollouts, and strict revenue-recognition rules are finding that legacy billing can’t keep up.

MGI Research’s 2025 Agile Billing Top 50 Buyer’s Guide adds another authoritative voice reinforcing this shift by highlighting vendors that deliver the speed, flexibility, and audit-ready precision needed to support evolving pricing strategies and operational demands, further underscoring that agile billing is no longer optional for companies looking to grow and scale.

For organizations still leaning on static billing processes, the message is clear: agile billing has shifted from advantage to requirement. Rethinking monetization now ensures the operational backbone needed to compete—and win—in 2026 and beyond.

👉 Connect with our team to see how we can help. 

🤖 From Feature to Revenue—How Agentic AI is Changing the Monetization

From chatbots to automated intelligence tools, agentic AI is reshaping how businesses deliver value. However, pricing AI is a challenge. Seat-based models rarely apply. Instead, companies are exploring new monetization models, including tokens, success events, usage thresholds, and outcomes—all of which require real-time tracking and responsiveness, unlike static SKU-based models.

Recent analysis of the 2025 SEG Annual SaaS Report by Monevate reinforces this shift: hybrid pricing models—combining a subscription base with usage—outperform both user-based and pure-usage models across key KPIs, including:

• 16.1% revenue growth
• 7.2% EBITDA margin
• 6.6× EV/Revenue multiple

Hybrid pricing is proving to be the strongest model for SaaS companies adapting to AI-driven value delivery.

👉 Explore what billing needs to support AI monetization.

⚙️ Accurate | Compliant | Scalable — Agile Billing Starts with Mediation and Rating

Mediation and rating sit at the core when rethinking monetization. As pricing complexity increases, systems must process high volumes of usage data quickly, accurately, and in compliance with global standards. Mediation volume is exploding as organizations log every micro-interaction across agentic AI, digital services, and usage-based models.

High-volume mediation can be difficult to manage without the right foundation. And with SOX 2025 updates calling for real-time financial controls and full data traceability, the pressure is on. Failure to track and transform usage at scale can lead to revenue leakage and operational inefficiencies. Real-time rating and mediation ensure the right charges are applied to the right usage, no matter how complex the pricing logic.

👉 See how Mediaocean scaled billing accuracy and cut close time by 22%.

🗓️ See You Next Month

Thanks for reading the July 2025 issue of the Monetization Minute! Hybrid and usage-based pricing are now the dominant models for AI and SaaS. Agentic AI is redefining how services are billed. Mediation volumes are rising as businesses log more granular usage data, and SOX 2025 is raising the bar on compliance and traceability. The pressure to adapt is already here. Don’t wait for Q4 to course-correct—now’s the time to rethink monetization.  

Feel free to forward this newsletter to teammates or peers who are exploring smarter ways to manage billing and revenue. 

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