As you move from personal experimentation to enterprise adoption, you will face a critical decision for any new initiative: should we buy an off-the-shelf AI solution or build a custom one? As a leader, understanding this trade-off is key to making sound investment decisions.

"Buy": When to Use Off-the-Shelf AI Software

You should "buy" when you are trying to solve a common, well-defined business problem.

• Examples: Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS), or general office productivity (like Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace).
• Why Buy? These problems have been solved many times before. A vendor like Salesforce or Microsoft has invested billions of dollars in building a robust, secure, and feature-rich solution. Attempting to build your own CRM from scratch would be a massive waste of resources.
• The Litmus Test: Is this a core competency of our business, or is it a utility? You buy your electricity from a power company; you don't build your own power plant. The same logic applies to most standard business software.

"Build": When to Invest in a Custom AI Solution

You should "build" only when the AI is intended to be a core part of your unique, proprietary value proposition. This is where you can create a true competitive advantage.

• Examples:
  • A hedge fund building a custom AI model to predict market movements based on their unique trading strategy.
  • A medical imaging company building a proprietary AI model to detect diseases from scans more accurately than any off-the-shelf tool.
  • An e-commerce company building a custom recommendation engine that understands the nuances of their specific product catalog.
• The Litmus Test: Is the AI performing a task that is fundamental to what makes your business unique and better than your competitors? If so, this is where you should invest your internal development resources.

For most conservative companies, the journey will be 90% "buy" and 10% "build." The strategy is to leverage the power of off-the-shelf, integrated AI platforms (like Microsoft Copilot or Google Workspace) to boost productivity across the entire organization, while making targeted, strategic bets on building custom AI for the one or two areas that define your unique place in the market.