SaaSCFO’s 2025 benchmarking data shows median gross retention (GRR) across SaaS dropped four points year over year. The 75th percentile fell from 95% to 91%. Retention is getting harder industry-wide, not just in a handful of struggling categories.

That data point introduces a concept worth knowing calculating: revenue erosion.

Revenue erosion = (1 − GRR) × ARR

That’s the revenue hole you refill from scratch every year, before a single new logo or expansion dollar counts toward growth. The number itself isn’t the test — every business has some erosion. The test is whether it grew year over year. If it did, growth is getting structurally harder no matter what the top-line chart shows.

Andrew Bialecki went on the SaaStr AI Podcast and gave the most concrete answer I've heard from a CEO this year to "what does AI-native actually mean." Not a vision statement — a deadline, a structure, and real teeth behind it.

Across our own network right now there's a real split — some CEOs are still fighting genuine adoption resistance, others are already past it and rebuilding how they price their product because agents are doing real chunks of the work now. Andrew isn't an outlier. He's just further down a road most of the CEOs we work with are about navigating.

Today's CEOs aren't just running companies. They're navigating three-dimensional chess. AI readiness isn't a technical capability or an organizational one — it's a personal leadership capability. And the window to develop it is narrowing.