The New Services Build vs. Buy Playbook

AI has made it easier than ever for companies to build their own software — and the most AI-forward enterprises aren’t treating that as a theory. They’re actively rethinking where SaaS still belongs in the stack. This session introduces a practical rubric for determining where an internal build creates meaningful leverage for professional services — and where owning the operating backbone creates more risk than advantage.

For professional services leaders, the question is no longer simply, "Can we build it?" (Answer: you probably can!) It is, "Should we own it?" (The answer: it depends.) Once financial logic, integrations, security, and governance enter the picture, even seemingly simple builds have the potential to become costly efforts that take valuable resources offline for months. That means services leaders need a sharper framework for build and buy decision-making that ensures vibe-coded applications don’t become a more polished, more expensive form of spreadsheet debt.