Everyone keeps saying SaaS is dead.
\nThe argument goes like this:
\nAI can build software now.\nSo why pay for Salesforce when you can ask Claude to build a CRM?\nWhy keep subscribing when a prompt can generate the thing?
\nIt sounds dramatic.
\nIt also misses the point.
\nAI is changing software, but it is not deleting the need for real products.
\nVibe coding works really well for tools used by a small number of people.\nIt works for internal tools.\nIt works for prototypes.\nIt works for narrow workflows where the stakes are low and the users know exactly what they want.
\nIt does not replace the software that entire companies rely on every day.
\nWorkday, Salesforce, Gmail, and the rest of the enterprise stack are not just apps.
\nThey are years of edge cases.\nYears of permissions.\nYears of integrations.\nYears of compliance, uptime, support, reporting, security, and boring reliability.
\nYou do not reproduce that in a weekend with Claude Code.
\nThat is the part the \"SaaS is dead\" crowd keeps skipping.
\nProduction software is not just code.
\nIt is maintenance.\nIt is trust.\nIt is uptime.\nIt is knowing what happens when something breaks at 2 a.m.\nIt is handling the weird customer who uses the product in a way nobody predicted.\nIt is surviving the thousand tiny failures that never show up in a demo.
\nMost companies would rather pay for that than own it themselves.
\nSome SaaS will die.
\nNot because software becomes useless.\nNot because every company will suddenly become a software company.\nBut because the business model changes underneath it.
\nAI lowers the cost of building.\nThat means more products can be made faster, by fewer people, with less capital.
\nIt also means customers will have higher expectations.\nMore alternatives.\nLess patience for bloated tools that solve a problem only slightly better than a script, a prompt, or a lightweight workflow.
\nThe old SaaS playbook was simple:
\nThat playbook still works for some products.
\nBut it gets weaker when the software is generic, replaceable, or only marginally better than what a smart team can assemble themselves.
\nA good analogy is television.
\nCinema did not die when TV arrived.\nBut it changed.
\nPeople no longer needed to leave the house to watch moving pictures.\nThat shifted the whole category.
\nTheaters had to adapt.\nSome formats faded.\nSome became more premium.\nSome became cultural events.\nMovies survived, but they reshaped around a world where entertainment could happen at home.
\nAI may do the same thing to SaaS.
\nNot all software disappears.
\nBut the center of gravity moves.
\nSome products will get commoditized.\nSome will become more niche.\nSome will need to become deeply embedded in a workflow to survive.\nSome will need to become meaningfully better, not just a little better.
\nThe companies that adapt will thrive.
\nThe ones that assume customers will keep paying just because they always have will be in trouble.
\nMy last company, Crossfill, shut down.
\nThat makes this whole conversation feel less abstract.
\nIt is easy to talk about market shifts like they are strategy deck slides.\nIt is different when you have lived through a product, a team, and a business reaching the point where they no longer work.
\nShutdowns have a way of clarifying things.
\nThey show you what actually mattered.\nThey show you what was fragile.\nThey show you how fast a market can move on from a product that once felt necessary.
\nThat experience makes me skeptical of any argument that says a category is permanently safe.
\nIt also makes me skeptical of the opposite extreme.
\nNothing is guaranteed.\nNot even the tools everyone assumes are untouchable.
\nI think the winners will be the software that becomes harder to replace, not easier.
\nThe products that survive will be the ones that are:
\nThe future is not no SaaS.
\nThe future is probably less generic SaaS and more software that earns its place.
\nThat means fewer companies winning by being the default.\nMore companies winning by being indispensable.
\nIt also means some products will need to stop thinking like software vendors and start thinking like workflow owners.
\nNot just \"how do we add AI?\"\nBut \"what are we actually irreplaceable for?\"
\nThat is a much harder question.\nBut it is the right one.
\nThat is the biggest mistake people make.
\nAI is not an asteroid that wipes out software.
\nIt is a force multiplier.
\nIt lowers the cost of creation.\nIt increases the speed of iteration.\nIt makes it easier to build alternatives.\nIt raises the bar for what customers expect.
\nThat is not the end of SaaS.
\nIt is a pressure test.
\nSome companies will thrive.\nSome will get squeezed.\nSome really are dinosaurs.
\nThe ones that survive will not be the ones with the loudest AI marketing.
\nThey will be the ones that are actually useful, deeply embedded, and hard to replace.
\nSaaS is not dead.
\nBut the easy version of SaaS might be.
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