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AI agents are starting to eat SaaS

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Re: AI agents are starting to eat SaaS

#351

Post by btown »

nitwit005 wrote: post #349
btown wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a bit surprising to me that Microsoft hasn't created a product that's "you have an Excel file in one of our cloud storage systems, here's a way for you to vibe code and host a web app whose storage is backed entirely by that file, where access control is synced to that file's access, and real-time updates propagate in both directions as if someone were editing it in native Excel on another computer. And you can…

You can use something like Salesforce as an app platform if you want. It lets you create "Custom Objects", which are basically tables, write queries, and so on. It's just that the hassle of dealing with that platform tends to be similar to the hassle of setting up an app yourself, and now you're paying a per-user license cost.

Even Salesforce doesn't have a good way to quickly port an Excel-based workflow, with file handoffs and backwards compatibility, into Salesforce. In theory, you could have an LLM generate all the metadata files that would execute a relevant schema migration, generate the interface XML, and build the right kinds of API calls and webhooks... but understanding what it's doing requires a Ph.D. in Salesforce, and many don't have time for that.

Re: AI agents are starting to eat SaaS

#352

Post by nitwit005 »

jillesvangurp wrote: post #153

I'm seeing the opposite. AI is actually increasing the demand for what would previously be too expensive, bespoke integrations and solutions. Those are now becoming more feasible and doable. There is also the notion that a lot of companies are actually very behind on embracing software or SAAS. Especially in manufacturing it's common to see operations that haven't materially changed anything in decades. The fallacy h…

If you look at past automation efforts, the automation initially made workers more valuable. They could produce more, at lower cost, and there was plenty of demand. Eventually, you hit the realistic limits of demand though, and the number of workers started to drop.

If software gets cheaper, people will buy more of it, to a point.

Re: AI agents are starting to eat SaaS

#353

Post by mike_hearn »

JaumeGreen wrote: post #310
btown wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a bit surprising to me that Microsoft hasn't created a product that's "you have an Excel file in one of our cloud storage systems, here's a way for you to vibe code and host a web app whose storage is backed entirely by that file, where access control is synced to that file's access, and real-time updates propagate in both directions as if someone were editing it in native Excel on another computer. And you can…

I miss MSAccess, but for the modern age. It has been replaced by basic CRUD using your platform of choice, but it's not as easy. That would be similar to your solution, so either one would work. I think that there might be some similar alternatives (maybe Airtable? probably using Lovable or Firebase counts) but nothing that is available for me for now.

The modern version of Access is something like APEX.

https://www.oracle.com/apex/

APEX is probably just as widely used now as Access was. Access likely had higher market share but of a much smaller market. There are gazillions of APEX apps out there.

Re: AI agents are starting to eat SaaS

#354

Post by riantogo »

benzible wrote: post #124

I'm CTO at a vertical SaaS company, paired with a product-focused CEO with deep domain expertise. The thesis doesn't match my experience. For one thing, the threat model assumes customers can build their own tools. Our end users can't. Their current "system" is Excel. The big enterprises that employ them have thousands of devs, but two of them explicitly cloned our product and tried to poach their own users onto it.…

While most here are aligned with your perspective, and for good reasons, let me offer an alternate perspective. Today AI can take the goal and create a workflow for it. Something that orgs pay for in SaaS solutions.

AI does it imperfectly today, but if you have had to bet, would you bet that it gets better or worse? I would bet that it will improve, and as it is often with tech, at exponential rate. Then we would seen any workflow described in plain language and minutes see great software churned out. It might be a questions of when (not if) that happens. And are you prepared for that state of affairs?

Re: AI agents are starting to eat SaaS

#355

Post by killerstorm »

Hmm, suppose Claude Code can make a prototype.

But who's going to deploy it, make backups, integrate authentication, review security?..

Now, perhaps, it would be nice to have some kind of a ERP framework which would host AI-generated apps and connect them to each other. Is there anything like that?

Re: AI agents are starting to eat SaaS

#356

Post by jimbokun »

adriand wrote: post #193
jeswin wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For one thing, the threat model assumes customers can build their own tools. That's not the threat model. The threat model is that they won't have to - at some point which may not be right now. End users want to get their work done, not learn UIs and new products. If they can get their analysis/reports based on excels which are already on SharePoint (or wherever), they'd want just that. You can already see this hap…

The president of a company I work with is a youngish guy who has no technical skills, but is resourceful. He wanted updated analytic dashboards, but there’s no dev capacity for that right now. So he decided he was going to try his hand at building his own dashboard using Lovable, which is one of these AI app making outfits. I sent him a copy of the dev database and a few markdown files with explanations regarding cer…

Update us when you have an actual success story.

Re: AI agents are starting to eat SaaS

#357

Post by osn9363739 »

adventured wrote: post #246
indymike wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I believe that agents are a multiplier on existing velocity, not an equalizer. Development tooling improvements usually are a temporary advantage end up being table stakes after a bit of time. I'm more worried that as agentic tooling gets better it obsoletes a lot of SaaS tools where SaaS vendors count on users driving conventional point and click apps (web, mobile and otherwise). I'm encouraging the companies I'm…

What I'm seeing Ad infinitum on HN in every thread on agentic development: yeah but it really doesn't work perfectly today. None of these people can apparently see beyond the tip of their nose. It doesn't matter if it takes a year, or three years, or five years, or ten years. Nothing can stop what's about to happen. If it takes ten years, so what, it's all going to get smashed and turned upside down. These agents wil…

I don't think you can guarantee it will get better. I'm sure it will improve from here but by how much? Have the exponential gains topped out? Maybe it's a slow slog over many years that isn't that disruptive. Has there been any technology that hasn't hit some kind of wall?

Re: AI agents are starting to eat SaaS

#358

Post by pojzon »

Yes when I need to convert music in one way or another I dont pay 0.1$ to do it and be over with it.

I run Cloude Code to build that SaaS for me locally over the span of few weeks, to get the same value.

This article makes no sense.

Re: AI agents are starting to eat SaaS

#359

Post by osn9363739 »

biql wrote: post #253

There are already plenty of SaaS that offer open source version as a way to push to the cloud and charge for hosting, maintenance, support and some extra features. In that way, a working code have already been commoditized and those companies didn't disappear.

I was looking for this comment (I was going to say the same) - I'm mostly on the backend services and infra side, and I have the option to host a lot of open-source tooling as opposed to paying for a service. I have to weigh up my options when deciding what to do, but a lot comes down to how much time I have and how much I'm willing to waste in time & hosting costs to keep the thing running. Also, do I need support, and ensure uptime and SLAs etc. Or what if I'm on holidays. I'm sure there are other things I'm not thinking of right now.
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