Here is the 1st wave:
Unbundling Excel
First Wave Excel Use-Cases → SaaS Companies
Invoices: FreshBooks and Jobber replaced the classic invoice template in Excel, making billing easier for freelancers and SMBs.
CRM: Salesforce and HubSpot turned basic contact tracking spreadsheets into super powerful sales and relationship management platforms.
Project Management: Asana and Monday .com came from Gantt charts and task lists in Excel to project management tools.
Unbundling ChatGPT
First Wave ChatGPT Use-Cases → SaaS Companies
Customer Support: Intercom Fin and Gorgias took the basic Q&A chatbot use-case from ChatGPT and packaged it into a 24/7, always-on, AI-customer support.
Content Creation: Jasper and Copy .ai wrapped around ChatGPT’s content-writing capability into dedicated features to create blogs, email writing, and marketing copy.
Data Analysis: Humata and Glean use AI to analyze documents and summarize trends, replacing manual data review.
The 2nd wave:
Second Wave Excel Examples
Industry-specific SaaS: Sandbox (childcare management), Swept (janitorial services), and Little Hotelier (boutique hotel scheduling) are examples of SaaS that go far beyond basic spreadsheets and into tailored features for niche markets.
No-Code / Low-Code Platforms: Airtable and Coda let people build interactive databases and apps, something Excel users never dream of doing.
Second Wave ChatGPT Examples
Industry-specific Copilots: AI “copilots” for legal, healthcare, finance, and construction that answer questions, handle compliance, and automate routine operational workflows.
AI Chief of Staff: AI that reads every document, data point, update, and conversation across an organization, then delegates tasks and keeps everyone aligned from the top down.
AI Voicemail & Communication: AI tools that handle, transcribe, summarize, and respond to voicemails and calls.