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title: "We could just build this ourselves now" may be right about the building
author: Giacomo Balli
published: 2026-10-16
url: https://BigBalli.com/blog/we-could-just-build-this-ourselves-now-may-be-right-about-the-building
tags: AI, Engineering, Product, Leadership, Data
---

# "We could just build this ourselves now" may be right about the building

*By Giacomo Balli* | *Published: October 16, 2026*

"We could just build this ourselves now." Someone on your team has said it about software you pay for, and they may be right about the building.

A survey of software companies this year asked which AI-related objections they hear from buyers. The most common, at 36%, was some version of that sentence. AI has made writing software cheaper, and customers have noticed.

That covers the code. The renewal on your desk also pays for the person who fixes it when it breaks during month-end close, the security updates nobody schedules, the connection that fails when your bank changes its file format, and the retraining when the one person who understood it leaves.

Building makes sense when the thing is narrow, specific to how you work, and cheap to throw away: a tool that sorts incoming job requests the way your dispatcher wants them. It gets harder to justify when the thing touches money, customer data or compliance and only one person could fix it.

Ask the person proposing the build who maintains it in year three, and what that costs per month. If the answer is "me," ask what happens when they take two weeks off.

[Discuss on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7516983821502889984)

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**Tags:** AI, Engineering, Product, Leadership, Data

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