For as long as I’ve been in the software business, there’s been this ongoing debate: should you buy enterprise software or build your own? It’s a question that surfaces in nearly every major IT decision, and I’ve found myself switching sides more times than I care to admit.
Let me save you some reading time and give you the answer upfront: it depends. I know, I know – the classic engineer’s response. But stick with me, because what’s happening with AI right now is fundamentally changing how we should think about this decision.
Why This Matters Now
This question has come up again in several projects we’re currently working on. We’re helping clients rebuild their core business processes – finance, production, delivery, customer relations – and reimagining them in light of what AI can do today. These aren’t just any processes; they’re the heart of how these businesses operate, touching multiple enterprise systems along the way.
What’s making this particularly interesting is that the traditional pros and cons of each approach are being turned on their head by AI capabilities.
The Traditional Arguments
Let’s be honest about what we typically hear. The case against enterprise software usually goes like this: you have to reshape your business to fit the software, the licensing costs pile up year after year, the interfaces look like they’re from the pre-MySpace era, and getting started feels like assembling flat-pack furniture with missing instructions – theoretically possible but you’ll lose your sanity in the process.
On the flip side, enterprise software advocates point out that it’s faster to implement, cheaper to maintain, designed by experts who’ve thought through every edge case, and often comes as a hosted service so you don’t have to worry about infrastructure.
Custom solutions promise to fit your needs like a glove, follow your existing processes perfectly, and give your users interfaces they’ll actually enjoy using. Plus, no recurring license fees eating into your budget forever.
A 20-Year Reality Check
Here’s where it gets interesting. One of our clients has this ancient custom-built CRM that everyone loves to hate. It’s 20 years old, the interface is painful, and I’ll admit I’ve tried to replace it more times than I can count. It’s become the poster child for why custom software is a bad idea.
But take a step back and think about it differently. This thing has been running for two decades. Show me an enterprise CRM that people still love after 20 years – I’ll wait. The truth is, nobody loves any 20-year-old software, whether it’s custom or off-the-shelf.
More importantly, let’s talk money. Take those 20 years of license fees for something like SAP or Microsoft Dynamics, multiply by 100 users, add in the costs of specialists to set it up, customize it, and maintain it (and these folks don’t come cheap), and suddenly that custom solution doesn’t look so bad and scary after all.
How AI is Changing the Equation
This is where things get really interesting. The rapid advancement in AI coding capabilities is starting to shift the balance, and not in the way most people think.
Let me be clear: the internet is full of noise about AI coding. On one side, you have influencers declaring that everyone on earth will lose their jobs and need UBI every time someone successfully generates a to-do app. On the other, you have people gleefully sharing AI failures as proof it’s all hype.
The reality, as usual, sits somewhere in the middle. There’s a huge difference between what is called “vibe coding” – throwing prompts at an AI and hoping for magic – and actually coding with AI. The first is wild and exciting but not really reliable as of today. The second is boring, technical, and routine – but it works.
What AI Can Actually Do Today
No, AI can’t build complete enterprise software from a single prompt. But saying AI can’t build software at all? That’s just wrong, usually coming from people who haven’t taken the time to learn how to use it properly.
We’re building production software with AI assistance every day. It requires frameworks, guardrails, and skill to operate effectively, but it’s getting easier and more reliable at a stunning pace.
What this means for the build-vs-buy decision is profound. The cost of custom development is starting to drop – not overnight, but steadily as AI capabilities improve and organizations learn to leverage them better.
This is also why I’m predicting that demand for software development overall will actually grow. It might sound counterintuitive, but as software becomes cheaper and faster to build, more organizations will want more of it. The workload for software agencies will increase, not decrease. How software is made will evolve in multiple steps over time, but there will be more demand for software, not less.
The New Calculus
Here’s what’s changing the equation:
Lower Development Costs: AI is making custom development faster and cheaper. Not vibe-coding cheap, but significantly more affordable than traditional development.
Easier Maintenance: One of the traditional problems with custom software is that it becomes harder to maintain over time – the original developers leave, documentation gets outdated, and nobody wants to touch the “legacy” code. AI is changing this by making it much easier for new developers to understand and work with existing codebases. The code becomes less dependent on specific people knowing how it works.
Adaptive Software: Here’s the really exciting part – we can build AI capabilities directly into custom software that allows non-technical people in your organization to make smaller changes and adaptations themselves. No more waiting for expensive specialists to map out every little process change and then code it. Your team can adjust the software as your business evolves, all within safe guardrails that prevent anything from breaking.
Looking Forward
I’m not saying enterprise software is dead – far from it. As long as there are enterprises, there will be enterprise software. And I expect enterprise vendors will start building AI capabilities into their products, potentially allowing them to adapt to your organization in real-time.
But for now, the pendulum is swinging toward custom solutions, especially for organizations with specific needs or unique processes. The combination of lower costs, better tools, and AI assistance is making custom development a more attractive option than it’s been in years.
The Bottom Line
The build-vs-buy decision still depends on your specific situation. But AI is changing the variables in that equation dramatically. Custom solutions are becoming faster to build, cheaper to maintain, and easier to evolve.
My advice? Don’t dismiss custom development based on yesterday’s assumptions. The world has changed, and it’s changing fast. Whether you’re buying from a specialized agency or building in-house, AI is making custom software a viable option for more organizations than ever before.
The future is becoming truly exciting for everyone – both those building software and those using it. And that 20-year-old CRM everyone hates? Maybe its replacement will be custom-built after all, just with a little help from our AI friends.
