The Only Two Things That Make a SaaS Company Durable in 2026

Here’s a test for any SaaS product: can an AI coding agent replicate its core functionality in a few days? If the answer is yes, the company has a problem that no amount of feature development will solve.

Wiley Jones, CEO and co-founder of Doss — the AI-native operations platform that just raised $55 million for mid-market physical operations companies — believes the SaaS era was an anomaly. A historically unusual window where companies could build commercially successful products on what he calls “super thin technology.” That window is closing.

The embarrassment of riches

Jones doesn’t mince words about what the SaaS era produced. He sees it as a period where engineering depth was optional because infrastructure was cheap and abundant.

“SaaS was an embarrassment of riches, where we basically could throw 8 gig RAM at a simple CRUD app,” he says. “You didn’t have to care about how any performance of anything worked. And you don’t have to care about any generalization because you made it extremely narrow and extremely thin.”

Compare that to what came before. Systems built in the 1960s through 1990s — PeopleSoft, Workday’s predecessors, Salesforce — were “orders of magnitude more complex, more sophisticated, more better engineered.” PeopleSoft had composable data models and a domain-specific language in the 1980s. They had to, because the compute constraints demanded it.

The SaaS generation skipped all of that. And now AI is revealing what was underneath.

The durability bifurcation

Jones frames it as a stark choice with only two survival paths.

“Product-based companies that have no technology are going to be completely destroyed,” he says. “They have to decide whether they want to extract value for a few more years or if they want to try to rebuild themselves.”

The two things that remain durable:

• Deep technology. Systems that are genuinely hard to replicate because the engineering underneath is complex, composable, and architecturally sound. Not a CRUD app with a good UI — actual technical depth that creates a moat.
• Brand. Products that people love for reasons beyond functionality. The emotional connection, the experience, the identity. “Delivering that through a brand experience that people love because.”

Everything in between — great product, thin technology, no particular brand affinity — is in the kill zone. The competitive benchmark has shifted from other SaaS products to the cost of AI-generated alternatives.

Repricing, not always destruction

Jones isn’t predicting that every SaaS company dies. Some survive, but at different prices.

“I think they’re not doomed, but I think they will be repriced,” he explains. “The price now that they’re competing with is not against one another. The value of fully loaded engineers to go build the thing is that there are models that can produce it at a much lower cost.”

His own team proves the point. Doss has internally built complete replacements for previous SaaS products they used — not because they needed the full product, just the parts that mattered. “It took us a couple of days and now we have something that is precisely exactly what we need.”

The math is simple: if a $50/seat/month tool can be replaced by a weekend of vibe-coding, the tool’s pricing has to come down to compete with intelligence-per-token economics, not fully loaded engineer economics.

The durability test

For anyone evaluating their own company’s position, Jones’s framework offers a concrete diagnostic. Ask three questions:

1. Is there genuine technical depth? Not features — architecture. Could someone replicate the core with cursor in a week? If yes, technology isn’t your moat.
2. Do customers love the brand? Not use the product — love it. Would they feel something if it disappeared? If not, brand isn’t your moat either.
3. Are you willing to rebuild? If neither technology nor brand is strong, the honest choice is between reinvesting deeply or extracting remaining value. Doing neither is the worst option.

Jones sees this as the best time to be building. “There is more to build now than there ever has been in the history of history,” he says. The opportunity is real. But it requires building something that’s actually hard to replicate, not just useful.

FAQ

Why are SaaS companies losing value in 2026?

The competitive benchmark has shifted from other SaaS products to AI-generated alternatives. When internal teams can replicate a SaaS product’s core functionality in days using AI coding tools, the subscription pricing model faces downward pressure. Products compete against intelligence-per-token costs, not fully loaded engineer costs.

What is Doss and how does it replace ERP?

Doss is an AI-native operations cloud for mid-market physical operations companies ($20M-$250M revenue). Its Adaptive Resource Platform replaces fragmented ERP stacks with a single composable system that implements in 3-4 months. The company has raised $55 million and serves brands like Verve Coffee and Eight Sleep.

How does Doss differentiate from other ERP alternatives?

Doss built its own domain-specific language and intermediate representation layer so the system can introspect and modify its own architecture. This self-evolving capability means the platform adapts as a company’s strategy changes — new sales channels, new geographies, new product lines — without manual reconfiguration of the underlying system.

What types of companies are most at risk from AI disruption?

Product-based software companies with no real engineering depth underneath. Wiley Jones defines these as companies that built commercially successful products on “extremely narrow and extremely thin” technology during the SaaS era. If an AI coding agent can replicate the product in days, the technology provides no durable competitive advantage.

Can SaaS companies survive by adding AI features?

Adding AI features to a thin technology stack doesn’t create durability. Jones argues the issue is architectural — composable data models, self-introspecting systems, and genuine engineering complexity are what matter. Bolting a chatbot onto a CRUD app doesn’t change the underlying fragility that AI exposes.

What makes enterprise software technology durable?

Composability, engineering depth, and architectural complexity that can’t be replicated quickly. Jones points to PeopleSoft and Salesforce as examples — they built composable object models, metadata programming languages, and domain-specific languages decades ago. “There’s a reason they’re so composable and in every enterprise. It’s because they built something extremely powerful.”

Is brand enough to protect a SaaS company?

Brand can be a survival path if customers genuinely love the experience — but only if the emotional connection is strong enough to justify pricing above AI-generated alternatives. Jones frames it as one of only two durable paths (alongside deep technology). Products with neither face what he calls the kill zone.

What is the best time to start building a software company?

Wiley Jones says “there is more to build now than there ever has been in the history of history.” He compares the current moment to the discovery of the steam engine and fire in terms of opportunities for builders. The caveat: what you build must have genuine technical depth or strong brand, not just a useful product.

Should SaaS companies rewrite their products for AI?

Jones says “100%” — product-based companies must decide between extracting remaining value or rebuilding with real technology underneath. The rewrite isn’t just adding AI features; it’s rethinking the architecture so the system is composable, self-introspecting, and genuinely complex enough to resist replication.