The Replacement List
Redpoint Ventures surveyed 141 CIOs in March 2026 and asked which software categories they had seriously considered replacing in the last twelve months. The results show where displacement pressure is real and where it is mostly noise.
Customer service management tops the list at 26%. One in four CIOs has actively looked at switching vendors. AI-native support tools like Sierra and Decagon are winning enterprise contracts, and the ROI case for replacing human workflows with AI agents is the most mature of any category.
Salesforce automation sits at 19%. That number matters for anyone selling into or around CRM. A separate survey of over 200 US IT executives found that 55% expect to replace some commercial software with AI-generated tools, with self-built CRMs cited most often. The threat is not just AI-native startups like Attio. It is enterprises deciding to build their own.
Project management hit 20%. When AI agents can assign tasks, update statuses, and draft reports automatically, the case for paying per seat for a tool humans manually update gets harder. This tracks with what has happened to Atlassian and Monday.com stock in 2026.
Finance ops came in at 21%, which is notable because finance software is historically immovable. CFOs avoid change, auditors demand consistency, and integrations are brutal. That one in five CIOs has considered switching is a signal.
The Budget Reality
54% of CIOs are actively running vendor consolidation programs. The average enterprise runs over 130 SaaS applications with 20 to 30% redundancy. That redundancy is now a line item under review.
45% of AI budgets are replacing existing software budgets, not adding to them. IT budget growth is decelerating to 3.4% in 2026. When your buyer purchases an AI tool, there is a nearly one-in-two chance they are canceling something else to pay for it.
Only 3% of CIOs expect AI to lead to more vendors overall. The rest expect consolidation or no change.
What This Means for Sales
If you sell customer service, project management, or sales automation software, your champion is fielding consolidation pressure. Your renewal conversation is now a replacement evaluation.
If you sell AI tools, the budget is coming from somewhere specific. Know which line item your buyer is pulling from and what they are defunding to pay you.
General productivity tools (Microsoft 365, Google Workspace) sit at 2% replacement consideration. The switching costs are too high and the incumbent AI features give buyers a reason to stay. That is the moat.
Comp and hiring impact: if CIOs are consolidating vendors, they are consolidating vendor relationships. Expect enterprise AE territories to get more competitive and deal cycles to lengthen as procurement runs active RFPs instead of single-vendor evaluations.