If there’s a way for a company to become more self-sufficient, there’s no doubt it will jump at the opportunity. So, why outsource software when companies can simply create it themselves? This is the allure behind vibe coding — the ability for non-coders to generate their own tools using natural language with generative AI. The trend has been quickly popularized thanks to major players like Cursor and Anthropic’s Claude Code. The promises behind these tools have now led companies to become increasingly selective with what software they choose to buy versus build themselves.
But vibe coding isn’t the unicorn it’s made out to be. What promises to be a quicker and cheaper solution on the surface sometimes results in an unusable tool. When a built solution is usable, there are often heaps of security and compliance risks, plus a lack of depth — the kind that dedicated SaaS organizations spend years developing and refining. That said, it can still be an incredibly valuable tool for improving manual workflows and simple tasks. It’s just dangerously ineffective in replacing complex SaaS products that offer deep business context and enterprise-grade functionality.
The vibe coding trend says more about the process of buying software than of building it. Companies are fed up with the excruciatingly long B2B software buying process that averages 84 days (and up to 170 for bigger deals), and the lack of control they often have along the way.
After all, companies with SaaS needs have a problem that often demands a timely solution. Each day they spend vetting vendors and taking countless intro calls before even seeing how a product may be able to help cuts into productivity, momentum and bottom line.
Why Are Companies Vibe Coding Instead of Buying SaaS Products?
Companies are turning to vibe coding — using generative AI to create software — primarily because they are frustrated with the slow, months-long B2B software buying process. Vibe coding offers instant gratification and custom solutions that match exact workflows, eliminating the procurement red tape associated with outsourcing software.
Why Software Buying Is Broken
Vibe coding’s rise in popularity signals more than a new tech trend. It reveals a shift in the market’s priorities and preferences. Enterprises want custom solutions that feel exactly right for the problem their business is facing
The procurement process for outsourcing software can stretch over months. By the time a tool has actually been integrated into a workflow, the company’s initial needs could have changed entirely. There’s no disputing that AI-coded tools provide that instant gratification without the procurement red tape bogging everyone down.
The downside is that a quick solution isn’t usually a long-term one. Where SaaS products would be able to evolve with teams, becoming more effective over time as they aggregate user data, no-code tools have to be updated manually, becoming a time-consuming maintenance nightmare for in-house teams.
For buyers, off-the-shelf SaaS may also feel like taking a one-size-fits-all approach to a niche problem, whereas no-code solutions are built to match exact workflows. In theory, this customization would eliminate the feeling of being locked into rigid systems, replacing them with something they can tailor directly to their needs.
But solving the issue in this way quickly raises another: When they’re unable to scale a tool for additional teams, they risk creating a patchwork of disconnected systems. Being left with data silos that make it difficult to unify insights across the organization leaves teams feeling even more misaligned and less in control.
Creating a Win-Win Future
AI-coded tools aren’t close to replicating the scalability or security that enterprise-grade SaaS offers, which means we need to look elsewhere to solve these pain points. Ultimately, it’s time for the SaaS landscape to evolve with the times.
First and foremost, buying SaaS simply needs to be quicker. Buyers should be able to see the product at the very beginning of the process instead of a month later and to do so on their own time. Bringing this type of speed and autonomy — like the D2C buying experience — to the B2B world won’t just reshape the sales funnel but accelerate the time to adoption. The faster companies can see the value proposition of a product, the less tempted they might be to build their own.
When buying software, it’s also hard for a company to envision exactly how a product will actually fix their problem. Instead of being met with a one-pager of features and a single use-case demo, buyers need to understand how a tool can solve their unique pain points. If not, they’d rather risk data breaches than disrupting teams with a new tool they don’t even know will work for them. The key will be personalized demos that reveal how to solve the unique pain points of each buyer.
It’s clear that AI coding isn’t advanced enough to solve complex, enterprise-level business challenges. As a result, what some business leaders call innovative may just sink them further into technical debt and cost them more in the long run as they grapple with constant updates, security issues and frequent upgrades. Above all, these quick fixes lack the critical domain knowledge that makes SaaS so effective.
Instead of settling for a tool that falls short in creating comprehensive or scalable solutions, buyers finally need a more efficient way to discover enterprise-grade SaaS that will deliver the immediate value they’re searching for.
