New Delhi, Sept. 1 -- Capacity-based pricing is emerging as the preferred model for software companies introducing artificial intelligence (AI), with around four in five vendors opting for fixed commitments rather than charging customers purely on actual consumption, according to a Bain & Company report.

The report, based on an analysis of publicly available pricing across around 200 B2B software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies, said capacity models offer customers more predictable budgets while allowing vendors to maintain more stable revenue.

"Capacity, rather than consumption, is emerging as the preferred model, as it offers predictable budgets for customers and stable revenue for vendors," Bain said.

Under capacity-based pricing, cus...