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The Saas-pocalypse. Opportunity or doom and gloom for software as a service?

An ex manager of mine brought up the term Saas-pocalypse a few weeks ago and it was the first I heard of it.

Nowadays, instead of paying for Software as a Service, you can log into an AI agent and have it build a website for you that does exactly what you (think you) want in mere minutes. As a software developer, some of it does look like magic and to be honest it does worry me to an extent.

However, I don't think the role of software developer is going away, though it might be changing and I will explain why.

There are some companies that are going to be affected. If your Saas has very few touch points or deep interaction with your users then you probably will not survive. But here's the thing, AI probably was not what killed your Saas to begin with. Web sites and web apps have been easy and cheap to build and prototype for quite a while now, AI, has just made it a little bit easier and cheaper (ok, a lot easier and cheaper).

Just having a website is not what builds a business though, and it never has been. Chances are, whatever website you built has at least a dozen (if not hundreds) of competitors. Also, with millions of websites out there, even if you have the best product, no one will use it if they can't find it. Marketing and word of mouth will build a business more than "just" having a good product (and making a good and sticky product is hard to do as well).

Once you do have a website, you will have to think about how to scale it. Also, if you are accepting payments, you will have to know how to deal with security and defending your site against hackers. I have been in a few situations where the business went from unknown to known to the general world and suddenly we were discovered by hackers and scammers and we had to put in some measures very quickly. On top of that, you need to make sure your company is SOC2 compliant if you want to get enterprise customers.

Now I will admit I don't "write code" in the same way as I used to (AI writes most of it), but I do read it and I know what it is doing. If someone without experience is steering the code, there are many places your Saas can be exposed.

Just like in the world of music where you can now make a whole album in your bedroom and post it online for the world to listen to, just having something out there does not make it a hit. There are a few lucky people out there who do, but that vast majority don't and the music "business" still spends lots of money on marketing and studio time and even your average person can tell the difference between a major artists and a bedroom crooner.

Good Saas websites need to solve a legitimate business need, maintain a relationship with their users and somehow get people in the door to actually pay for the service. Now it's possible that you may need fewer people to do this or you can roll out features more quickly with AI, but it does not mean every Saas is going to be replaced with an AI generated custom built website.

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