Everyone says ripping out Salesforce is terrifying. Downtime, data loss, and internal chaos keep most companies locked into their SaaS stack for years. But something is changing. In this episode, Gabe explains why switching systems is no longer the career-ending move it once was. AI is lowering the cost of building and maintaining internal tools, which means companies are starting to question whether they should keep renting their operating systems from SaaS vendors. After removing Salesforce and building a CRM in Lovable, Gabe shares why the real shift isn’t just about build vs buy. It’s about who controls the system, the data, and the workflows as AI agents start doing more of the work.
For twenty years SaaS had a powerful moat: migration pain.
Switching systems meant risk, downtime, broken integrations, lost data, and internal political battles. Most companies stayed not because the tools were perfect, but because leaving felt impossible.
That dynamic is starting to change.
We recently removed Salesforce and built our own CRM in Lovable. It wasn’t ideological and it may not be permanent, but it highlighted something important.
Most companies already have the people needed to build and maintain systems:
Salesforce admins
RevOps teams
Integration consultants
You’re already paying someone to manage and maintain the system.
The only question is what they’re building.
Are they maintaining someone else’s platform… or building leverage inside your own system?
At Atonom, we’re building Cloud Employees, AI workers that run real workflows across tools and systems. As AI begins to execute more of the work inside organizations, the economics of software start to shift.
Per-seat pricing makes less sense.
Interfaces matter less.
Control of systems and data matters more.
This isn’t the death of SaaS.
But it may be the end of passive SaaS, where companies outsource too much of their strategic thinking to vendors.
If AI is going to run more of the workflows in your business, you may not want to rent the operating system those workflows depend on.
Learn more about Cloud Employees at Atonom:
https://atonom.ai