The “SaaS Wipeout” Threat (Build vs. Buy)

A team spends a year and a large budget building a custom AI assistant for support, sales, or document handling. It works in the pilot. Then the CRM, helpdesk, or office suite vendor ships a native version as a standard feature, bundled into an existing subscription. The custom system is now a maintenance liability that competes with something the business already pays for. That is the SaaS wipeout: not a failure of engineering, but a failure of build-versus-buy judgment made at the start of the pilot.…