The age of customized software or custom-made software?

For most of the history of software, we've adapted ourselves to the software.

You choose a CRM, accounting system, project-management tool, or operating system, and then configure your work around what it allows.

That may be changing.

AI coding agents and “vibe coding” have dramatically lowered the cost of building software for a specific need. The old problem with custom software was maintenance: someone had to build it, fix it, update it, and keep it running. That problem hasn't disappeared, but the cost of doing it is changing.

Still, I don't think everyone will become a software builder.

The more interesting future is maybe customization on top of a solid base.

The platform provides the difficult parts, the infrastructure, security, and a potentially strong base to work on, and you customize from there using prompts and AI. The user then customizes the experience and functionality around their needs.

Cloudflare OS and the Pi Agent Harness are interesting examples of this broader pattern: provide a capable foundation, then allow users or agents to build on top of it.

It could be the next evolution of software.

Not thousands of completely custom applications maintained independently, and not one generic application for everyone.

Maybe the future isn't building your own software. Maybe it's making existing software truly yours.