Danny Lutkus at UBS: AI makes custom software dramatically cheaper. Forward-deployed engineers + Ontology abstraction layer replace standardized SaaS. Forbes analysis + Palantir 10-K SEC filing.
Danny Lutkus, Palantir VP, declared SaaS is dead at the UBS Global Consumer and Retail Conference. His thesis: AI has made custom software development dramatically cheaper, eliminating the cost advantage of standardized SaaS. Forward-deployed engineers build tailored solutions on an abstraction layer — the Ontology — sitting atop existing infrastructure. AI coding tools (Claude Code, Codex) accelerate the toolkit approach. At $320B market cap with 46% commercial revenue, Palantir is betting that company-specific capabilities built on its platform will replace one-size-fits-all SaaS. The 2025 10-K (125pp, SEC filing CIK-0001321655) confirms Foundry as a "central operating system" and AIP as the AI layer unifying LLMs across the platform.