AI made the build-vs-buy problem worse, not better.

AI coding tools are lying to you.

Not intentionally. But that prototype you built in a week? The one that impressed your CIO? It’s a trap.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: A prototype is not a product. A product is not a platform.

And this isn’t just our opinion, it’s becoming the consensus among builders who’ve been deep in the AI coding trenches.

“AI gets you to 80% completion fast, but the remaining 20% is where the real engineering lives, and those problems are often harder to spot because you’ve been lulled into trusting the system. The problems didn’t disappear, they shifted. And some got worse.” – Addy Osmani, engineering leader at Google

Investment teams can get seduced by Cursor and Claude Code. They spin up a database, wire in an AI API, generate some structured notes, and think they’ve cracked it.

Then reality hits:

– MS Office integration that actually works (not a weekend project)

– Audit logs for three different regulatory regimes, which change over time

– Security certifications that require ongoing third-party audits

– The engineer who built it quits

“AI coding tools are extraordinary at getting you from zero to prototype. They are also extraordinarily good at hiding the mess they leave behind“

That two-week prototype? It takes 6-12 months to make production-grade. Then you need a team to maintain it forever. AI doesn’t change this timeline as much as you’d hope. It compresses the easy part and leaves the hard part untouched.

“Generating software and building software are about as similar as generating a floor plan and building a house. One of those things you can do with a napkin. The other requires engineering, permits, and a basic understanding that load-bearing walls exist for a reason.” – Paul Brady, the Great AI Coding Swindle

The real question isn’t “can we build this?”

It’s: Are you rebuilding existing, proven infrastructure, or building something that gives you actual investment edge?

Building your own RMS is like building your own Bloomberg terminal. Technically possible. Strategically questionable.

Build where it gives you edge. Buy where it gives you leverage.