[SaaS & AI Series] AI Disruption and the New Future of SaaS With Kevin Surace

Kevin Surace is the CEO and CTO at Appvance, a company that provides AI-native software quality assurance and autonomous testing solutions for enterprise applications. He is also Chair of Token, bringing decades of experience as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, inventor, and futurist. Recognized as the father of the AI virtual assistant, Kevin has led multiple technology companies, earned broad recognition, includingbeing named Inc. Magazine Entrepreneur of the Year, and holds dozens of patents. He speaks globally on generative AI, automation, innovation, enterprise software quality, and the future of work.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [2:09] Kevin Surace shares the AI tools he uses across voice, video, and coding
• [4:10] How AI is changing the way developers build products and find purpose
• [8:51] Kevin explains how AI is disrupting both small and large SaaS companies
• [12:39] Why AI may democratize SaaS development and erase traditional software moats
• [20:23] Appvance’s AI-native approach to software QA and autonomous bug detection
• [26:02] The $120 billion QA market and why manual testing is ripe for AI disruption
• [30:49] Kevin discusses reskilling workers and becoming the “robot overlord” of AI tools
• [43:14] Token Core’s biometric cybersecurity approach to stopping MFA compromise
• [47:40] The connection between joy, fulfillment, and peak performance

In this episode…

AI is not just changing how software gets built — it is challenging the foundations of how SaaS companies create value, compete, and survive. As AI tools make it possible to generate code, automate testing, and streamline go-to-market workflows faster than ever, what happens to traditional SaaS moats?

For Kevin Surace, a veteran technology entrepreneur, inventor, and AI pioneer, the answer is that SaaS companies must rethink where they truly add value. He highlights how AI is democratizing software creation, allowing smaller teams and even non-coders to build products that once required large engineering teams and major funding. The result is a more competitive SaaS landscape where speed, execution, trust, governance, and customer outcomes matter more than software complexity alone. Kevin also explains why enterprise companies may not abandon major SaaS platforms overnight, but startups can still disrupt incumbents by building leaner, lower-cost alternatives. He also explores how AI-driven QA can uncover bugs that human testers miss, helping companies improve software quality while accelerating productivity.

In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz sits down with Kevin Surace, CEO and CTO at Appvance, to discuss AI disruption and the new future of SaaS. They cover how AI is transforming software development, why QA automation is ripe for disruption, and what SaaS companies must do to adapt. Kevin also shares insights on cybersecurity, identity protection, and the joy-based mindset behind fulfillment and peak performance.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Kevin Surace LinkedIn | Website
• Appvance
• Token
• The Joy–Success Cycle: The Science-Backed Path to Fulfillment and Peak Performance by Kevin Surace
• ElevenLabs
• HeyGen
• Claude
• Gemini
• ChatGPT
• Pika
• Kling AI
• Seedance 2.0
• Notebook LM
• Claude Design
• Gamma
• Manus
• General Magic
• Delphi

Related episodes:

• “Automation Solutions with Wade Foster Founder of Zapier” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[SaaS Series] Cloning Minds With Dara Ladjevardian of Delphi” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[SaaS & AI Series] Smarter Way To Turn Meetings Into Outcomes With Artem Koren” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[AI & SaaS Series] Building the Future of Voice AI With Kwin Kramer” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[AI Series] AI Tools That Transform Your Business With Nicole Donnelly” on the Inspired Insider Podcast

Quotable moments:

• “All of these are tools that are accelerating our pace.”
• “I think it’s the most exciting time I’ve ever seen to build a company.”
• “We’re going from intent to finished product, intent to finish product.”
• “What I want is a machine to just go find my bugs.”
• “You want to be the robot overlord.”

Action steps:

1. Embrace AI as a productivity multiplier: Using AI to accelerate coding, testing, content creation, and go-to-market tasks can help teams get more done without losing focus on outcomes.
2. Identify where your company truly adds value: As AI makes software easier to build, SaaS companies must focus on customer trust, execution, governance, and solving meaningful problems.
3. Use AI to improve software quality: AI-driven QA can uncover bugs, generate test scripts, and reduce manual testing bottlenecks that slow down product development.
4. Reskill teams to work with AI: Helping employees become AI-enabled operators can reduce resistance, improve adoption, and turn disruption into a competitive advantage.
5. Strengthen identity and cybersecurity protections: As AI makes phishing and MFA attacks more sophisticated, companies need stronger authentication systems to protect users, data, and networks.

Episode Transcript

Intro: 00:15

You are listening to Inspired Insider with your host, Dr. Jeremy Weisz.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 00:22

Dr. Jeremy Weisz here, Founder of InspiredInsider.com, where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders. Today is no different. I have. Kevin Surace, and Kevin does many things which I’ll explain in the formal introduction.

Kevin, because you have Appvance.ai, you have TokenCore.com. You speak, you have a book coming out, The Joy. Well, by the time people listen to this, it’s going to be out. But The Joy–Success Cycle and it’s The Science-Backed Path to Fulfillment and Peak Performance. And before we get into that and formally introduce you, I would like to point out other episodes of the podcast people should check out.

This is part of the, you know, SaaS and AI series. Okay. And so some of the interesting ones to check out. I had one of the co-founders of Zapier on, that was an interesting interview. Wade Foster just talked about the journey a bit, right? It can be ups and downs, as Kevin knows, and Delphi.ai, which helps people create their own clone. You could ask it questions. And I actually with the founder, Kevin, I interviewed their clone and then I interviewed them for like five minutes, which is on the front of the interview of the clone, which I thought, I mean, we got to demonstrate what it does, right?

Kevin Surace: 01:39

So my clone is a Delphi clone.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 01:41

Oh, is it okay? There you go. Okay, shout out to Delphi. And then Sembly was another good one, which was on the early on note taking apps. And now it’s like it really integrates directly with a lot of the AI tools. And Kwin Kramer was one, you probably know Kwin, I imagine Kevin, CEO of Daily and really some of the just power, some of the voice AI out there, right. What are some of your favorite I don’t know, companies, people in, in the AI or SaaS industry?

Kevin Surace: 02:09

I have about 20 subscriptions, actually. ElevenLabs. All my voice stuff is ElevenLabs. I think it’s top of game. It’s not the least expensive, but it’s quite good. Include my own clones, but also, you know, 100 or so other voices. HeyGen, because I’m generating a lot of sort of training content and things like that, which is one way, HeyGen’s excellent. They can use the ElevenLabs voice models, but the video models, they’re, you know, version four, version five now is ridiculous. It’s very animated. So at least.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 02:42

I haven’t tested out in a while, so I’ll have to check it out. It’s been a while. Yeah.

Kevin Surace: 02:47

Unbelievable. What happened in the last year? Like it’s not too interactive, but the but the, you know, I’m doing some training stuff for someone and it’s just stunning. You know, Claude, right now. Of course, the models change around, right? We all started on ChatGPT 3 or 3.5 or whatever it is. And then, you know, they were top of the heap. And then Gemini kind of top of the heap for a while at Google quite, quite much. And right now it’s Claude 4.6 now. Claude 4.7. It’ll be Claude five point something soon.

Unbelievable. Right? These models, because of the reinforcement learning and the self coding now are just, you know, growing exponentially in a matter of weeks, not years. It’s unbelievable. So what? I’ll end with this. Right. Coders today, you know, three months ago, a few handful of months ago, let’s say the end of whenever people see this. But let’s say by the end of 2025 and early 2026, if you were coding on any of the coding platforms, whether it’s a Cursor, Gemini or Codex or whatever Copilot, you know, maybe you got 20-30% of your code done, and you needed to work a lot and clean stuff up and. All right, with the latest Claude models, it writes the whole application and it’ll work on it for hours to write that whole application, and it’ll write 20,000 lines for you front and back end the whole thing.

And I’ve seen coders go, what? That was my sense of purpose. It’s over. And I’m saying, oh, I have stories about this and music and everything else. I say, no, no, no, you misinterpreted your sense of purpose. Your sense of purpose was to get a product out because the people on the other side don’t actually care how you did it. They care that it came out and it meets their needs and has the features they want. Right? And we think that our sense of purpose was to actually do line by line by line, like coding, writing music, or some other things in finance before Excel came out. This is an example I give all the time. Right.

Before Excel came out, everyone in finance had pencils and ledger books, and they thought that was their sense of purpose. No, the sense of purpose was getting the finances done so you could analyze them and do something with them. Right? So all of these are tools that are accelerating our pace. And I think it’s the most exciting time I’ve ever seen to build a company, to run a company. Unless you’re an old company, then you better wake up.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 05:11

Out of the 20 subscriptions or plus whatever you have. Which ones do you consider like under the radar, like ones that people should check out that maybe are less known than like a Claude or some of these other ones?

Kevin Surace: 05:23

Oh, you know, there’s a, there’s a bunch of video things that people probably aren’t using and don’t know about. Pika is one, Kling. If they’re not using that, a bunch of video models that are that are pretty interesting, obviously Seedance now if you can get on it. Some of the third party services now tie to Seedance, which is pretty interesting. I’ve been following and using, I am a video editor, so I’ve been following and using these video tools as much as possible. And again, that is getting better and better.

Sure. NotebookLM if you don’t know about that from Google, it’s ridiculous to summarize documents, but just recently. So here’s a great example, right? Until recently, if you went to ChatGPT or any of the models or specialized models, Manus, etc., you got and you wanted to do a spreadsheet. Excuse me, you wanted to do a PowerPoint, right? You wanted to do a deck slide deck. What you got back was okay. It was okay. It wasn’t impressive. It was okay. All right.

Just recently, right. NotebookLM launched the slide deck capability. It’s stunning. A week later, Claude launches Claude Design, which is not in the regular Claude. It’s over here. Claude Design. And the whole core of Claude Design is to design PowerPoints and make them editable. And I am telling you, it’s astoundingly good. It’s not just a little good. Every slide is better than I could have made with, you know, 30 years experience of making slides. I should never make a slide again.

I have a line that I say in my keynotes. I say, you know, you have to figure out where you add value. And if a machine can do it faster and better than you, you no longer add value there. Stop doing that. That would be dumb, right? I wouldn’t ask you to do long division in your head right now. You could maybe, but it adds no value. Like, I could do it in Excel. I don’t need you to do that. Right. So people have to think about that.

And I see people go up to these tools. I saw a comment on X today that someone said, oh my God, I use Claude. And I, you know, it made 30 slides for me. And they’re incredible and they’re gorgeous and they’re this and that. And if I want to edit one, I don’t learn the editing tools. I just say in text, edit this and change these things. And it does. And someone else commented on X many positive comments said, fine, lose your mind. You obviously just want to be stupid and not do the work.

And I’m thinking that’s not work I ever wanted to do. What I want to do is give the presentation right? I want it to be my words. I want to give it my way. I don’t want to design every slide I never did. We all learned that because it was the only choice we had. Or we went to an outside house, right? It was one or the other. So now the outside house costs a dollar. It’s incredible times.

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