In a recent Every article, Dan Shipper highlights people who replaced expensive SaaS tools with AI-built alternatives. The stories aren’t just about cost-cutting. They show how quickly software creation is becoming accessible to people who never considered themselves builders.
This is still early days. Vibe-coding — natural language prompting to generate working tools — is in the first phase of its maturity curve. It often takes a few iterations to get things right, as Shipper’s examples show, but the return on investment is already strong.
I’ve seen it firsthand, vibe-coded this blog with Claude Code, among other projects. What once felt like “real development” is now as approachable as writing instructions to a teammate.
The upside: empowering non-technical builders
For product managers, operations leaders, or team leads, AI-generated tooling already unlocks new independence. Internal automations that might have sat in an engineering backlog can now be prototyped over a weekend. The process isn’t always smooth, but the ability to iterate quickly makes experimentation worthwhile.
This democratization of software creation expands what’s possible inside organizations. Small teams can act like they have an engineering wing. Ideas move from concept to usable prototype in days instead of quarters.
The downside: disruption for SaaS vendors
The same shift creates risk for SaaS companies. Many tools exist primarily to orchestrate workflows, manage data, or wrap a user interface around simple operations. If AI can reproduce that functionality on demand, customers may question why they’re paying $30 per seat per month.
This doesn’t mean SaaS is disappearing, but it does raise the bar for differentiation. Vendors can’t rely on features alone. The moats that will matter are:
Still Defensible | Vulnerable to AI-Build |
---|---|
Deep integrations | CRUD apps (create, read, update, delete) |
Network effects (marketplaces, data sharing) | Simple workflow orchestration |
Brand trust + compliance | Single-feature utilities |
UX polish + scale reliability | Internal-facing dashboards/tools |
Data network advantages | Niche automations |
The takeaway for product managers
For builders, the question isn’t only “should we build or buy?” It’s now “should we AI-build?” That third option changes how teams weigh cost, flexibility, and speed.
For SaaS leaders, it’s worth assuming some of your customers are already experimenting with AI-built substitutes. The challenge is to deliver leverage that vibe-coding cannot. Focus on platforms rather than the point solutions.
Conclusion
AI-driven vibe-coding is still early in its maturity curve, but the contours are already visible. It empowers non-technical builders today, while quietly pressuring SaaS vendors to rethink tomorrow. The future of SaaS may not be about providing software alone, but about providing the scale, polish, and leverage that AI-built tools may not replicate.