"Build vs Buy" is shifting towards "build"
MMaximilian Schwarzmüller
Computing/SoftwareSmall Business/StartupsBusiness News
Transcript
00:00:00One discussion, which of course has implications for all of us developers in the end, that's kind of picking up steam recently, as it seems to me, is whether most companies will build most software on their own in the future or not.
00:00:15And it's not a new discussion. It started maybe two or three years ago already. But of course, with those AI agents and the underlying AI models becoming more and more powerful all the time, the question kind of becomes more important now.
00:00:31Because, yes, I would absolutely say that we can see that more people, developers, of course, obviously, especially, are building their own software.
00:00:44I mean, for me, in my companies, we have definitely replaced various paid services for project management, for sending out emails and more with our own solutions.
00:00:59Now, of course, I'm a developer. So that's kind of easy for me. I didn't do it before AI, though, because it still took more effort.
00:01:10And AI has definitely helped with getting more done and tackling more ambitious tasks.
00:01:19You still kind of need to know what you're doing, though. You can definitely also vibe code certain products.
00:01:25And for some utility tools, that is all you need. For example, I built a little background remover tool, which I can use for my thumbnails to remove, well, guess what?
00:01:36The background behind my face. And I just vibe coded that because I don't care about the details.
00:01:42If it goes wrong, I just see it that it goes wrong. I can then vibe fix it.
00:01:47And it's not a crucial tool in any way. So you can definitely vibe code certain tools.
00:01:53And, of course, that is not restricted or limited to me. Many people can do that.
00:01:59Still, not necessarily everybody, because not everybody, far from everybody, knows about all these agentic tools and what they can do.
00:02:09But, yeah, definitely all developers or more tech-savvy people can vibe code certain tools.
00:02:17However, there are certain tools where I would not necessarily recommend vibe coding them.
00:02:24For example, a tool that sends out emails like a newsletter.
00:02:29There is stuff that can go wrong there and you don't want to spam your audience and get them to unsubscribe or hurt your email sending reputation.
00:02:40You don't want half the emails to not be sent either.
00:02:45And there is more.
00:02:46For example, maybe you forgot to vibe code an unsubscription functionality so that people can unsubscribe.
00:02:54Not too good either.
00:02:56There is more to consider there. It's more complex.
00:02:59And even if we ignore issues like that, even before that, there goes a lot into large-scale email sending.
00:03:09And it starts with actually knowing how to do it, that there are services like AWS, SES you can use.
00:03:15And even if you do know it, setting everything up properly there is more than just one click.
00:03:22Now, there certainly are services that make that a bit easier, but still, it requires a bit of technical knowledge, I would say.
00:03:28And it's not something every little non-tech related company will quickly do on its own and it will work just fine.
00:03:36And I think this is one important thing to consider when we think about that question.
00:03:42Which kind of software will be built by companies on their own versus which kind of software will be purchased now and in the future?
00:03:52The complexity of the task, of course, plays a very important role.
00:03:58What can go wrong and how bad is it if it goes wrong?
00:04:02You sometimes read that vibe coding software is fun, maintaining is not.
00:04:08And there is some truth to it.
00:04:11The more important some software is, obviously, the more it hurts and the more annoying it is if you have to maintain it, especially if you have no idea of what's going on there.
00:04:22Of course, bigger companies can tackle more ambitious tasks, too.
00:04:26They have the manpower.
00:04:27They have the AI agents.
00:04:28They have the knowledge.
00:04:29And they therefore may be able to replace certain tools that are not replaceable by less tech savvy companies or by individual developers.
00:04:39But in those bigger companies, there are new layers of software that will be harder to replace for compliance reasons or, again, for complexity reasons, because we're talking about software like SAP or Salesforce that may be so deeply integrated into so many systems that you rather keep on paying than replacing it.
00:05:02Now, that may change over the next, I don't know, 10 years or whatever, but I don't see all those large companies suddenly replacing all the software they're using.
00:05:15What we can see, though, on all levels, no matter if we're talking about large companies or individual developers and so on, is that some software is being replaced.
00:05:24And I think there is no arguing about that.
00:05:28And especially for indie hackers, if your primary audience also were other developers, it's getting way harder because the kind of software you were building and selling often is the kind of software that can be replaced.
00:05:43Now, there still can be modes if you have some service that's not primarily about the software, but about the underlying data that may not be easy to come by, or if it's like a compliance or legally complex business, stuff like that.
00:06:00You're not really paying for the software there.
00:06:03You're paying for something else.
00:06:04And therefore, naturally, it's harder or impossible to replace.
00:06:09Well, obviously not impossible, but a lot harder.
00:06:12So there is some mode there.
00:06:14If the mode was just the software that solved a small problem, that will be harder.
00:06:22And I think that is one change we can already see with AI right now, and a change that will accelerate.
00:06:27Because what's possible today for developers, I believe, will to some extent at least soon also be possible for other businesses, for normal people.
00:06:37Not everything, of course, the AWS email sending example may stay out of their reach, though, maybe with help of other providers that make that easier, it may not be out of their reach in the future.
00:06:48But there are a lot of utility tools, small project management tools, stuff like that, where I believe more businesses and more people will vibe, develop their own software.
00:07:02Just as maybe two years ago, having a service that produced images with AI, let's say headshots or anything like that, where you could build a cartoon based on some images you upload.
00:07:17But such services would probably have worked fine one or two years ago, and I think that is vastly quickly changing now, because normal people have more possibilities of generating such images with AI right from their phones.
00:07:35Because it's maybe integrated into the operating system, or because they can use it through their chat GPT subscription, most people are not paying for it, but there are some free limits there, too, and more and more people may be paying.
00:07:47So this is a good example for a business model that maybe worked amazingly two years ago, and is coming under a lot of pressure now.
00:07:57And I think we'll see the same for other services and software, simply depending on what your mode is.
00:08:04Now, that's, of course, all not groundbreaking news, I know that, but it has important implications for developers about which you have to think right now.
00:08:12Because, of course, not only is our profession in general changing, we're writing less code, and I think we're also changing how we tackle code reviews, reading every line.
00:08:24We'll very likely not do it in the future, so that is changing, but also where you work plays an important role.
00:08:31And I know jobs are hard to come by these days, and having a job is better than not having a job, obviously.
00:08:37But if you are working at a company that builds one of these tools or that builds software that looks to be more on the replaceable side,
00:08:48that, of course, kind of is a warning signal and doesn't mean that you have to leave instantly,
00:08:52but that you have to be cautious about your future planning, so to say, because this, I think, will accelerate.
00:09:01And I do strongly believe there will always, in the sense of the next, I don't know, 10 years, super hard to tell these days,
00:09:10but there will always be some software people will not build on their own because it's too important, too complex, or because it's not primarily about the software.
00:09:20But there will be many cases where companies, people will actually vibe their own tools and software,
00:09:30or maybe not vibe it, but use existing development skills to replace software they used to pay for in the past.
00:09:39So, yeah, I think this is a trend, and it is a trend that is accelerating, and it is therefore also a trend, which means that becoming self-employed
00:09:48by building software as a service solutions is much, much harder now, obviously, than it was a couple of years ago,
00:09:54because you really have to think about what you can sell that offers a real benefit.
00:10:00And that is definitely more difficult now than it used to be, I'd say.