SAAS NORTH NOW

Across startups, a simple question keeps coming up: how much of this work still needs a human? Recent shifts, including tools like Claude Code, have accelerated what small teams can realistically build and automate, changing expectations across roles and workflows.

After years of tighter funding, heightened global competition and rising expectations on efficiency and execution, the decision feels less hypothetical and more defining.

This year has pushed founders into constant adaptation. With market resets, scarce capital, restructuring pressures and changing board expectations, many are re-examining how they define resilience, influence, and success.

Budget 2025 has formally kickstarted a national defence tech push, with roughly $81 billion in new funding for the Canadian Armed Forces and a dedicated $6.6 billion Defence Industrial Strategy meant to grow a domestic defence industrial base.

With the federal budget now cleared to move forward (and Canada avoiding a destabilizing political reset) the focus has shifted firmly toward implementation.

Ahead of her SAAS NORTH 2025 session, From CX to AI Agents: How Modern Companies Are Reimagining Customer Experience, Jo Lai, HTS’ SVP of AI Solutions and Customer Experience, shared how the company is redefining what great customer experience looks like in the AI era and what SaaS leaders can take from their approach.

The growth strategies that fueled SaaS in the 2010s and early 2020s no longer deliver the same results. Attribution dashboards are increasingly unreliable, paid ads are less efficient, and customers no longer want to be followed around the internet.

Jason Smith, CEO & Co-Founder of Klue, has built and scaled five startups over the past 25 years. From the dot-com era to the SaaS boom and now the AI age, he’s seen how markets evolve and how quickly competitive dynamics shift.