--- title: "AI Coding, The SaaSpocalypse, and the Tools We Still Pay For." date: 2026-03-12T10:26:00-04:00 author: Sean Smith canonical_url: "https://website101podcast.com/episodes/season-09/episode-3/ai-coding-the-saaspocalypse-and-the-tools-we-still-pay-for/" section: Podcast --- <!\[CDATA\[YII-BLOCK-BODY-BEGIN\]\]>[Skip to main content](#main-content)Season 09 Episode 3 – Mar 12, 2026 27:54 [Show Notes](#show-notes) ## AI Coding, The SaaSpocalypse, and the Tools We Still Pay For.  0:00 0:00 1.0x 0.75x1.0x1.25x1.5x2x [](//dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/website101podcast.com/uploads/mp3/Season-09/S09-E03-lunch-bytes.mp3) Can AI replace the apps you pay for? We dig into the SaaSpocalypse debate, vibe coding wins, AI tells in writing, and why "just build it yourself" isn't that simple. ### Show Notes Sean, Mike, and Amanda kick things off with quick life updates before diving into two main topics: the so-called "SaaSpocalypse" and how AI is changing the way people write and code. - Is Saas dead? - AI Writing 'tells' or giveaways Powered Transcript Accuracy of transcript is dependant on AI technology. **\[00:00\]** **Sean:** Yeah, I'm actually on the YouTube right now. Oh, now So I'm looking at the YouTube thing and I guess wait for our picture to come on Whatever oh there we are Hey, it's lunch bites the website 101 podcast YouTube things I shouldn't have been the one to say this. You should not have **\[00:27\]** **Amanda:** Take two I'm gonna take over Hey everybody welcome to the website 101 podcast This is our lunch bites on the first and third Wednesday of every month We do a YouTube live that we have also recently decided to make podcast episodes that are also gonna be available Everywhere you listen to your podcasts. So if you like the podcast format, please continue to Join us there subscribe on whatever platform it is that you listen to but if you want to come join us live If you want to influence what we're talking about or or be the first one to know come and join us on YouTube The first and third Wednesday of every month at 11.30 a.m. Eastern time That's how you do it **\[01:18\]** **Sean:** And sometimes we do video like visual things on these lunch bites. So it's probably better **\[01:24\]** **Mike:** Yeah, yeah, but not always if you had a question or a comment about the content, you know we we will answer it live **\[01:31\]** **Sean:** Yeah, that's right. Yeah, put us on the spot **\[01:36\]** **Amanda:** Late a fire yes, yeah, how are you friends? **\[01:41\]** **Sean:** Yeah, how are you shot? **\[01:43\]** **Mike:** Pretty good. I did my second overnight sleep study last night. Oh **\[01:49\]** **Sean:** Oh Okay, wait, I don't know if you want to get into that now, but I can't wait to hear about it in some form **\[01:55\]** **Mike:** It wasn't as there wasn't as much events as there was on the first one So maybe better sleep then No, but anyways, that's what I did last night. So how about you guys? **\[02:11\]** **Sean:** I'm good busy And I don't mean busy and that's good, you know, there's a whole thing about people saying they're busy and that's like a sign of success I'm not saying that I just mean I have to be very busy and it's you know, but also overall life is good **\[02:29\]** **Amanda:** Yeah, it's fine good good for you. How about you Amanda? We went away last week and it was amazing and I'm having problems getting back into the swing of things Now that we're at home **\[02:46\]** **Mike:** Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah the post vacation Doldrons can be a little bit hard to get out of yeah **\[02:54\]** **Amanda:** Well usually usually on a vacation by about five day five It's like oh, you know, I I miss my bed. I miss my stuff I'm I miss my routine. I'm happy to get back and this is probably the first vacation Almost ever where we were at the airport coming home and I was like No, I don't want to go home. I want to stay here, please **\[03:18\]** **Mike:** Where did you travel? **\[03:20\]** **Amanda:** We went to Mexico Not in Portavillada where all of the Cartel political stuff was happening much further south and in an area called I'm gonna say it wrong With talco **\[03:37\]** **Mike:** talco **\[03:39\]** **Amanda:** I will be able to correct you even if I wanted to yeah, you know how you know how Mexico kind of goes like this It's at it's at the very bottom part. Oh cool. Yeah **\[03:52\]** **Sean:** I think I was near there one time when I went there on vacation. Thanks for familiar. Yeah **\[03:57\]** **Mike:** I've only been once and I was at a resort in Cancun So I believe that's on the the northeast coast, but I can't really remember **\[04:07\]** **Amanda:** At the very opposite cancun is well, I guess the east coast. Yeah, but it's on Kind of like down here. It's like at the bottom of the Gulf cool. Sounds like had a great vacation **\[04:18\]** **Sean:** It it was a really good vacation everyone had a good time. She frozen for you. She's frozen for me. Yeah, this is a Amanda you're frozen **\[04:25\]** **Amanda:** How about this? **\[04:26\]** **Sean:** Yeah, you're back and I will say so since we last released The lunch bites that we did before on the podcast feed. I noticed that these frozen moments You're not frozen in the audio like you can hear you keep it just hears us you can hear us saying Hey, she's frozen, but you're still talking. It's very confusing when you're listening **\[04:49\]** **Mike:** Yeah, get ready for that. That's interesting. So I mean, I knew that the recording was done locally and and then saved and uploaded locally Yeah, so that's the that's the evidence that we have Yeah, that's right So I was just gonna say I was just gonna say we had a couple of the Topics that we wanted to hit mentioned in our select channel something about SaaS products and what is a SaaS product and Mike had promised to tell us what it is because I mean, I know the word and I think I know but I don't have a real good definition of it myself **\[05:28\]** **Sean:** All right, well, this is just a something I was gonna bring up um Curious to know if you guys have any thoughts on it. So there was recently a big kind of controversy in the AI world uh Called SaaS apocalypse which was SaaS SAAS software as a service. So my understanding of a SaaS is just any any kind of thing that you typically subscribe to regularly that provides you with something like To to do list kind of thing and an app like to do is to whatever or you know, Asana. I don't know any any A lot of software that you get now where you have a monthly subscription Right they provide this service as software on a regular basis. Does it have to be a subscription? Or is it just something that you log in? I guess it doesn't have to be a subscription But it's I guess the for me the the point is it's some someone else has it on their server They build it they do it and you're using their service, you know, it's not something you build. It's not something you buy and install **\[06:34\]** **Mike:** You know **\[06:36\]** **Sean:** I don't know what the technical definition is **\[06:38\]** **Mike:** Yeah, I think a lot of uh SaaS products have a free tier Uh with limited features or you know things like that So it doesn't always require a subscription But the goal is to get you in that funnel so they can upsell you into a higher level tier And some some of these sasses They they don't even have a free tier. They'll have a short trial And then you have to and then you have to start paying for their their base level plan **\[07:07\]** **Sean:** Mm-hmm And actually you you touched on something that this is the thing I want to talk about because this SaaS apocalypse thing was this Plain that in the world of AI where people can make their own software with cloud code or something they've vibe coding and all that stuff The the the The claim was do we have any need for SaaS products anymore? Is is that Industry dying because I don't need to pay for your product I can just have my AI build my version of it that's tailored to my needs that that was a controversy So first of all I have more to say but maybe I'll let you jump in if you have any comments on that particular Have you heard of that? What are your thoughts on that anybody? I haven't heard I have it. Thank you **\[07:52\]** **Amanda:** Thank you Mike. I haven't heard anything specifically about that but just with everything that you've described my initial gut reaction is I don't want to make my own like I want to I don't have the time. I don't have the energy. I don't have I'm definitely not going to compete with some Software that's been out there for years and years already that's gone through feature upgrades and support and You know proper documentation and actually like thought through the full Even business process even if it's something like not business related like just to do app or something But has thought at the whole entire process from start to end and like figured out all these weird edge cases and stuff like that I'm I'm not gonna sit down and make my own that's ridiculous **\[08:43\]** **Mike:** Yeah, I was gonna say something similar to Amanda myself I don't think that it's the end of the service who has the time To vibe code this stuff. Oh Rob does Mutual friend. He does this kind of stuff all the time. It's like a hobby for him and that's great. Yeah, but **\[09:01\]** **Amanda:** But I've but he still has I bet he still has Software and and websites and other things that he subscribes to that he uses like he's even if he's interested in doing that **\[09:11\]** **Mike:** He's not doing it for everything. Yeah exactly and you know I pay for Sasses because it saves me time and effort and Me vibe coding or half vibe coding my own sass is not going to save me time or effort It's gonna cost me a lot of time and effort as I try and Finagle everything and understand things and deal with all the mistakes AI is doing whether it's bloating it or Doing it the you know the long way Uh It's just not worth it like Even even if your your money is really really tight A lot of these software as a services will actually be worth it For you rather than spending the time and then what happens when an API changes and You lost all your you lost all the stuff and now you got to spend another like two weeks trying to get it to work again No thanking it. Yeah. Yeah **\[10:17\]** **Sean:** Well here's a just before I go on there's a quick story This is not necessarily sass I guess it's just a piece of software But this weekend I went to a pub because some friends of mine were performing there ones a guitarist and well they're both guitarists And the one of them plays Pedal steel guitar. Do you guys know what a pedal steel guitar is? No All right, well you've seen it before you've heard it's it's typically in like country music It's it's a guitar like object that lays down in front of you and you sit down at it And if you slide a thing around it kind of goes **\[10:53\]** **Mike:** It's other or something **\[10:55\]** **Sean:** Well, it's I don't know it's hard to describe you don't see it. It's got these rods that you hit with your knees And it's got a pedal that you use and stuff All right very complicated instrument I was talking to him after and he said To tune a pedal steel guitar It's very difficult because you have to something like Figure out the key of the song you're about to play in and then tune it to that key sort of thing Something to that effect. I'm not a guitarist. I don't know they don't Anyway, he showed me on his phone in the break he vibe coated this app and put it on his phone where you can just Pick the key of the song your plan and it shows you the strings on your pedal steel And it shows you what to tune them to and it has like this cool little graphic It looks like every bit as professional as something you would download from the app store In fact, he's thinking of trying to monetize it a little bit with other Lap steel or pedal steel Players that he knows So that's just a cool example of some of the things that people are doing with whatever clawed code and everything else **\[11:54\]** **Mike:** Oh sure. I'm actually that example is something that I think would be worth it rather than paying somebody 10 bucks a month for this thing **\[12:02\]** **Sean:** Yes, yeah **\[12:04\]** **Mike:** It doesn't sound like a kind of thing that's gonna break on you once it's working because it's not relying on apis or or you know other Things that can change at the whim of some other service. It's so funny that you just said that I mean and I mean **\[12:18\]** **Amanda:** And niche topic. Yes, that's cool that he did that but I love that Mike you were like always gonna monetize it and Sean is like that's not worth $10 a month **\[12:27\]** **Sean:** So it's That's so true Well, so you mentioned that you know you don't have to do this You wouldn't have to pay $10 a month and someone might monetize it whatever Uh, I gave him the example of I sometimes fool around with a regular guitar and I do have a tuning app that I used to tune my guitar But I just use a free version and I have to sit through like two minutes of ads before I can start tuning the guitar That's how it works So I thought about maybe I should code my own and then I don't have to do that ad thing I just use it for myself which I may yet do I don't know But there's an example of that But here's my question about the sass thing This is what I was gonna get to It's everyone's talking about is sass dead all these service providers providing whatever In the age of i ai. I don't know why all the apps that I subscribe to That I pay for are not being flooded with new features all of the time Because the people who make them also have access to a i like I subscribe to here's an example There's a piece of software that I used I don't know if I should give I'll give the name whatever It's called millenote actually Amanda. I mentioned on the show before because you told me about this I know you don't use it But I think someone in your school where you teach I know one more time Millenote millenote m-i-l Yeah, and It's basically a whiteboard mood board type app where you drag pictures around and stuff and it's cool And I started using it. I've used it for a couple of years But I just cancelled my account because they have not updated that package in Probably years that not added anything new to the service And I realized this I don't You know that that bothers me like Why aren't they getting a i to just because they do have a road map of feature requests Which a lot of these services do where people like I want you to add this and this I think I've submitted some ideas I don't know why they don't point Claude code at it and say hey implement the top five of these ideas And let's ship them right now, you know what I mean? Why isn't that happening that that's an interesting idea **\[14:37\]** **Mike:** I'm sure there's some reason behind it But yeah, I don't know the answer **\[14:43\]** **Amanda:** Yeah, I think that's just occurred to me. I think it's a slippery slope though with all of the Issues that we've heard and all of the anecdotal stories about vibe coding screwing up and security holes and leaking data and deleting hard drives like I think that once you say oh well, we're gonna do it just now to get like the the first five features to release them immediately I think that if you start going down that path it's gonna be really hard to Pull the reins to like slow down that path, you know, and having like proper code review and Going over the merge requests and making sure that it actually the functionality actually fits the direction that you're That you originally envisioned taking the software like I think that I think that once somebody opens the floodgates It's it would be so easy to just be like it's flooding now And I can see why a lot of people maybe wouldn't want because we all have a little like oh, it's my baby It's my software so I can see a lot of people wouldn't want garbage potential garbage to be introduced **\[15:49\]** **Sean:** Well, I'm kind of exaggerating when I say like just flood it with all the new features Like I don't mean that I guess what I mean is still do your Diligence and your protocols for testing and so on But surely they could implement ideas much faster now that AI exists They could use it as a tool to help them do what they do the same way we all do, you know, yeah **\[16:09\]** **Mike:** But it seems like different extends. It's not it's not like you're required to Have AI code the whole thing Yeah, I think that you know one way you could do it is like hey AI I need feature ABC It needs to do just this and this Reference this section of the code and make sure that it follows these standards Spits it out then I go in and look at the code and say oh, okay, I like this or Please add comments here explain why this is doing it this way. I'm not I don't understand this part Go in and learn what AI did to your code rather than Check tested on the front end and oh working commit Like there are levels to vibe coding right? Yeah, you could be a vibe coder who has done zero code in your entire life And you're just gonna go like yep, that's what I want And maybe that works and then there'd be somebody like like me. I'm gonna Take a look at it as long as I'm familiar with that part of the code And if it's a little bit on my skill I might ask for some instruction or better notes or comments But if I was being asked to do something completely out of my wheel I was I might revert back to person one like you know I just feel like there's different ways to do this **\[17:31\]** **Sean:** Yeah Well, I I have been experimenting this weekend with cloud code. I finally downloaded and installed the thing Because I keep hearing so much about it But here's a bit of a annoying experience. I have with cloud code in particular every time I Look up what can I do with cloud code? It's always It can organize your emails. It can organize your screenshots on your desktop It can organize the events in your calendar. I don't fucking need help organizing my life. I'm very organized I don't need all that. I don't have a million emails. I have four emails on my inbox right now. I don't have a million screens like So I can never get a you know a practical idea That doesn't involve not being a digital slob that needs to have his life cleaned up. Yeah plus I am I am not ready **\[18:28\]** **Amanda:** I'm not ready to give any AI service access to my to my email. No Yeah, hey, please please please do something on my hard drive and move these files around No **\[18:40\]** **Mike:** No, yeah, yeah, unfortunately if you're using gmail They already have an AI that's accessing your inbox **\[18:48\]** **Amanda:** Yeah, I know but it's not some it's but it's not some third party that right I mean like like the Yeah, the Gemini thing is like just sort of working quietly in the background and every once in a while I get that notice Oh, do you want to turn this feature on it? I'm just like no like just fuck it like I'm I'm happy with how that's working **\[19:09\]** **Mike:** I am exactly with Amanda. I have not enabled any sort of AI on my Google account Like I don't need it if I need something. I'll I'll go to Claude or I'll head up chat GPT and ask for help in that way You know what I want AI I want an AI robot to come in and organize my house Specifically my home office you guys can't see it because I'm really tight up against the wall here But it's a disaster in this office. I want AI just to send me a little Rosie robot like from our last episode that we talked about come in and clean my house for me or at least my office **\[19:44\]** **Sean:** Yeah Well, it's funny that I heard the creator of Claude code interviewed on a podcast the other day I forget his name But they were he was talking about Whatever all the stuff it can do and the host said to him. I think it was Claude co-work, which is the Sort of more user friendly version of Claude code that doesn't have the terminal Uh, the host said he uses that and he said give me something useful. I can use it for whatever and that his answer was You can tell it to read the first three emails in your inbox and compose responses And I thought really that's that's the best because if I did that first of all I'm not sure I wanted to do that like you guys yeah because it's almost guaranteed did not Write in my voice, you know, and I will have to double check everything. Yeah, like that's why I don't use gmail's Gemini now to compose responses because it's like I have to redo it all sort of thing **\[20:38\]** **Mike:** Yeah, that's speaking of using your voice uh two things I have a friend who's writing a blog And yeah, he sends his blog articles to me and it's like what do you think about this and I tell him what I think but I can tell that he's writing it mostly with the AI I asked him and he denied it but When You read enough you can tell what is AI Because it all the most common thing and I'm not going to talk about the m- The really common thing is flowery words a b and c And there's a couple other like tells If you're doing that You got to go in and customize it after like This morning I posted in our slack and I said oh look, uh, I got this Client potential client and here's what they asked for and then I went into Chat GPT I did not give them access to my email I copied the email text out and I copied the the text from the file that they sent me and I asked for Some suggestions and it gave this long flowery wordy High-level prose response, which is not me Even though I said you know, I want more casual but I cut and paced pieces out of it Made my own Submitted it back and say hey, what do you think about this? I did that twice before I sent it off to the client I didn't take everything and I made sure to read it carefully And remove things that to me make it sound like it's AI and put it back into my voice and address my concerns **\[22:21\]** **Sean:** Yeah, yeah Yeah, it's a made like I agree that I feel like I can recognize AI a lot of the time I guess I it's probably not true But I feel like there are sort of like giveaways and it's amazing how often people just Ask chat GPT something it gives them the answer they copy they paste like the it's clear that that's not I just **\[22:44\]** **Mike:** With the last lunch bites episode that I put on the podcast the summary is AI generated **\[22:50\]** **Sean:** I think I noticed that too **\[22:52\]** **Mike:** And then afterwards like looking at gory, you know what I'm just like gonna let it go this time Uh, and next time I'll do something a little bit more more custom But if you read it really tell slippery Yeah, oh And I've been going him into our back catalog and doing AI transcripts But I I'm limited to like one a day just with the service that I'm using one free one again Assess but I didn't want to pay for the full level. Yeah **\[23:23\]** **Sean:** Yeah Maybe should make vibe code your own version Oh speaking of speaking of the words that it uses a lot I got this is a different situation I guess but in that soon-o the music app I was toying around with that one time I was getting to write a song it used the words fleeting The word fleeting twice in the same song wow not really relating to the same thing like just two different sentences in the song yeah fleeting And I was just like this is fucking stupid nobody nobody sings like this. Yeah, I heard that I've used that word in the last week **\[24:04\]** **Mike:** Yeah, but twice you have yeah, I can't remember where you said Pleeting like a brief period of time F L E E T I N G. Yeah, I've used it. Yeah **\[24:15\]** **Sean:** In the last week really yeah To me that's a very On you it's like Delve that's the other one that they are uses a lot Delve We're gonna delve into whatever nobody fucking talks like that but except Sean apparently **\[24:28\]** **Mike:** Well, I've used it not not in the last week, but I know I've used Delve My kids give me a hard time about using high-level vocabulary with them But it's like I'm educated. I'm not gonna like dumb down my language for there And they're like where how do you know these words? I read books and they don't like to read as the younger generation You know and so I Sometimes I intentionally use difficult words in front of them Just in the life difficult for them, but at other times it just it comes out naturally. I just have a I mean I don't know, but I feel like I have a high-level vocabulary why I was waiting for you to say for both **\[25:07\]** **Amanda:** Verboasts would have been much more efficient than saying high-level Sean **\[25:12\]** **Mike:** Yeah, but for roast doesn't necessarily mean high level Now I'm being pedantic. I know shut up **\[25:19\]** **Sean:** You're the do the exactly the person that AI is being trained on to get words like Delve and m-dashes and all these fucking things **\[25:27\]** **Mike:** Yeah, I used to love the m-dash. I no longer use it because Yeah, I can't do it. I don't want people telling me that it's AI generated So I stopped using it because of that became one of their more well-known tells. I wouldn't even know how to get an m-dash on a keyboard **\[25:43\]** **Sean:** Yeah, I think a lot of people wouldn't know that I used to know a keyboard shift option, but I don't anymore and if I wanted it again **\[25:53\]** **Mike:** I would just like Google it or ask AI Well, yeah, no of course but copy and paste **\[25:58\]** **Amanda:** But I think but I think that's the thing like if you have to start like putting in Unicode to get like unique characters. I think that's probably **\[26:06\]** **Sean:** It's not the m-dash in particular. It's overuse of the m- that is the tell you know, it's often there's many that is correct **\[26:18\]** **Mike:** But now everybody knows that one so even using an m- people will just like oh, this is AI generated You didn't write it yourself and say go I'm not I just don't want to deal with with that so I When I do get AI stuff I remove it If there's an m- in there, I'll just replace it with a colon which is usually what you can put in there **\[26:40\]** **Amanda:** Real people don't use colons when they're writing **\[26:45\]** **Mike:** Sorry, I'm not real people **\[26:50\]** **Sean:** All right, anyone else have some oh it's Jesus five to twelve. Yeah, I think uh, did you want to talk about something else before we go or I think that's it **\[27:00\]** **Mike:** Yeah **\[27:03\]** **Amanda:** Yeah, I got like no time. I got to leave the house in 30 minutes. Oh, you got to go tea train. Yeah, okay. All right. All right. That's that's rapid up **\[27:14\]** **Sean:** Awesome. That's wrap it up and thank you everyone for listening or watching. Yes Like Amanda said you can tune in to these on on YouTube or you can just Pay attention in your feed and they're gonna show up everywhere. So I think the whole podcast now we're gonna try to do Release it on YouTube regularly as well, right like even actual episodes that are not launch bites. Yes, the plan that is that that is the plan Yeah, so stay tuned that stuff **\[27:42\]** **Mike:** All right, everybody Close Transcript This episode is a Lunch Byte! If you enjoyed it, please consider [subscribing to our YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/@website101podcast)and watch us live. [Watch This Episode on YouTube ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d_e2LY0M9U&t=162s) Have a question for Sean, Mike, and Amanda? [Send us an email](/contact). [![Listen on Google Play Music](/assets/images/google_podcasts_badge@2x.png)](https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly93ZWJzaXRlMTAxcG9kY2FzdC5jb20vZmVlZC5yc3M%3D)[![itunes badge](/assets/images/itunes-badge.png)](https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/website-101-podcast/id1449510012)[![itunes badge](/assets/images/spotify-logo.png)](https://open.spotify.com/show/3rmSM1R9t6q1U8DmYWJRSO?si=NrYPMgDaRV6Dd56PjEaPow)### Season 09 - 1 [ Productivity tips to help you work](https://website101podcast.com/episodes/season-09/episode-1/productivity-tips-to-help-you-work/) - 2 [ Deepfakes, Bullying, and the Future of AI Video](https://website101podcast.com/episodes/season-09/episode-2/deepfakes-bullying-and-the-future-of-ai-video/) - 3 [ AI Coding, The SaaSpocalypse, and the Tools We Still Pay For.](https://website101podcast.com/episodes/season-09/episode-3/ai-coding-the-saaspocalypse-and-the-tools-we-still-pay-for/) - 4 [ Can AI build a smartphone app in a weekend? Sean tried it.](https://website101podcast.com/episodes/season-09/episode-4/can-ai-build-a-smartphone-app-in-a-weekend-sean-tried-it/) - 5 [ When Was The Last Time You Built A Site Without A CMS?](https://website101podcast.com/episodes/season-09/episode-5/when-was-the-last-time-you-built-a-site-without-a-cms/) ### All Seasons - [Season 01](https://website101podcast.com/season/01/) - [Season 02](https://website101podcast.com/season/02/) - [Season 03](https://website101podcast.com/season/03/) - [Season 04](https://website101podcast.com/season/04/) - [Season 05](https://website101podcast.com/season/05/) - [Season 06](https://website101podcast.com/season/06/) - [Season 07](https://website101podcast.com/season/07/) - [Season 08](https://website101podcast.com/season/08/) - [Season 09](https://website101podcast.com/season/09/) <!\[CDATA\[YII-BLOCK-BODY-END\]\]>