Hot Take: Build the Intelligence, Buy the Plumbing

If AI makes it possible to build almost anything, should you?

That's the question Ryan Rich, COO and Co-founder of Accord, posed to a group of revenue leaders during a recent conversation about the build vs. buy debate.

While AI is making custom development faster and more accessible than ever, the consensus was clear: the goal isn't to build everything. It's to build the right things.

As Sowmya Srinivasan, former VP of Revenue Operations at HubSpot, explains: "Buy the plumbing, the one that does your mundane task. Think of it as automation. Think of it as something that is going to reach out to the customer to book a meeting. Don't build those. Just buy and just go with whatever is the basic thing out there."

Instead, invest your resources in what makes your business unique. "The intelligence layer, which is going to be some of the signals that you want to surface, because every company is different, you want to deeply understand your customer."

What should you buy?

• Meeting scheduling and booking tools
• Workflow automation
• Audit trails and governance
• Version control and operational infrastructure
• Other repeatable, low-differentiation processes

What should you build?

• Customer intelligence and signals
• Proprietary workflows
• Business-specific insights
• Competitive differentiation
• The capabilities that help you better understand and serve your customers

Conclusion

The takeaway? The best teams are moving quickly by leveraging proven technology for low risk, repeatable processes while focusing internal innovation on the areas most closely tied to their customers, strategy, and competitive advantage.