[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":19},["ShallowReactive",2],{"post-stop-buying-software":3},{"content":4,"publishedAt":5,"tags":6,"updatedAt":11,"coverImage":12,"status":13,"postId":14,"excerpt":15,"slug":16,"createdAt":17,"title":18},"For most of the last two decades, the buy vs build decision was simple.\n\nIf you needed software, you bought it.\n\nCRM, CMS, CDP, Ecommerce, messaging platforms. Each one came with a predefined model of how your business should work. Not perfect, but close enough. And far easier than building it yourself. So companies adapted. They shaped their processes around the software, not the other way around. That tradeoff made sense because building your own systems was expensive, slow, and risky.\n\nAI changes that constraint.\n\nWhat used to take teams and months can now be generated in hours. Not perfectly, but well enough to replace real parts of the stack. And that shifts the question. From *which software should we buy* to **whether we should be buying it at all**.\n\nMost SaaS products are designed to work for as many companies as possible. That’s their strength. It’s also the limitation. The broader the system, the less precisely it fits any one business. That’s why even great platforms require customization and integration. Not because they’re flawed, but because they’re designed for everyone. For a long time, that was still the better option. Now it’s not always clear that it is.\n\nI’ve seen this firsthand working on multi-tenant marketing platforms. The real value wasn’t the interface. It was the system underneath. The data models, workflows, and how everything fit together across hundreds of locations. The closer the system matched the operating model, the more effective it was. And it rarely matched perfectly.\n\nSaaS didn’t win because it was better than custom software. It won because custom software was too expensive.\n\nAI reopens that decision.\n\nNow companies can build systems that match how they actually operate. Their workflows. Their data. Their constraints. At a certain point, buying software starts to feel like compromise. This doesn’t mean SaaS disappears. It means it moves.\n\nThe application layer becomes fluid. Interfaces and workflows can be generated and reshaped as needed. What remains are the hard parts. Identity, data, messaging, and the guarantees that come with them. Which changes where the value is.\n\nIt’s no longer in the tool itself, but in the pattern behind it. What actually works. The systems that hold up under real conditions, not just ideal ones. That’s where advantage starts to shift.\n\nTo the **patterns** that define how things should work.  \nTo the **infrastructure** that makes them reliable.  \nAnd to the **integration** that brings it all together.\n\nFor product leaders, the job changes with it.\n\nFor years, the question was whether you could afford to build your own systems.\n\nNow it’s whether you can afford not to.\n\nAnd for the companies selling software, the question changes too.\n\nWhat’s left that customers can’t build themselves?","2026-03-30T17:22:38.975Z",[7,8,9,10],"AI","SaaS","Custom Development","Buy vs. Build","2026-03-30T20:28:52.697Z","https://ericnparadis-com-prod-mediabucketbucket-baexchhz.s3.amazonaws.com/media/5c131416-1160-4acd-9831-90b2ebf24ec2.png","published","73b04ee7-7f5f-499f-bc29-5ad352e6c3e6","SaaS was built for scale. AI is built for precision.","stop-buying-software","2026-03-30T17:22:38.978Z","Stop Buying Software.",1776201805327]