Businesses have grown accustomed to paying monthly subscriptions for software that handles accounting, marketing, inventory, customer service, and other operations. As their needs expand, they often add more applications, each designed to solve a particular problem.
Artificial intelligence is beginning to change that arrangement. Businesses can now use AI-assisted coding tools to develop applications tailored to their own requirements, sometimes replacing functions previously handled by commercial software.
At the Cross Border Summit in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in November 2026, Chip Ge shared how he developed BC Hub, an internal e-commerce operations platform for his travel accessories business, which sells through Amazon, TikTok Shop, and Shopify.
His presentation, titled “‘Firing’ Your SaaS Stack: How We Built a Full Seller Operations Platform with AI Coding Agents,” described a system developed over several months using AI-assisted coding.
According to Chip, BC Hub now includes approximately 65 internal applications connected through 22 APIs and other integrations. It supports activities ranging from inventory and logistics to advertising, creator management, and financial reporting.
What caught my attention was how the system incorporates the company’s operating knowledge into its software.
When business rules become software
Consider an online seller receiving orders through TikTok Shop but using Amazon’s fulfillment services to deliver some of those products.
If the business relies only on the sales reports of each platform, it may have difficulty assigning fulfillment expenses to the correct orders. A sales channel could appear more profitable than it actually is because some costs are recorded elsewhere.
Chip explained how BC Hub connects information across platforms to allocate expenses more accurately. These include fulfillment charges, product costs, and commissions associated with sales.
The system also helps evaluate inventory and replenishment requirements. For instance, deciding whether to reorder a product involves more than checking how many units have sold. The business must consider available stock, actual margins, purchasing costs, expected demand, and the time required for new inventory to arrive.
These calculations can be difficult when the information is scattered across applications and spreadsheets. BC Hub brings relevant data together and applies documented operating rules to support such decisions.
Chip also described converting standard operating procedures into structured instructions that AI systems can follow. Instead of relying entirely on lengthy written manuals, processes are expressed through clearer conditions and actions.
His system includes an advertising agent called Penny and a logistics agent called Logan, which handle selected activities according to these rules and connected business information.
The significance is that the business is developing software around the way it operates, rather than continually adjusting its procedures to fit separate applications.
This requires management to understand its own processes. If product costs are incomplete, inventory information is inaccurate, or decision rules are poorly defined, custom software can reproduce those weaknesses.
AI-assisted development can help implement business logic, but the quality of that logic remains the company’s responsibility.
Will businesses need fewer software subscriptions?
One of Chip’s notable claims concerned subscription costs.
He reported eliminating approximately $2,000 in monthly software subscriptions while spending about $100 monthly on hosting and API services for BC Hub.
These figures should not be interpreted as a direct comparison of total operating costs. His presentation also identified ongoing AI subscriptions, development expenses, and the considerable time involved in building the platform. Maintenance and technical oversight remain necessary.
Still, the experience raises a question about how businesses will evaluate software subscriptions as AI capabilities expand.
I know people who previously used Canva extensively for image generation but now perform more of that work through ChatGPT and other AI tools. They may retain Canva for layouts, templates, collaborative editing, and publishing, even though their usage of certain features has changed.
This does not establish a broader decline in Canva subscriptions. It illustrates how users can redistribute tasks across applications as new capabilities become available.
For businesses, a similar reassessment may involve determining whether to retain specialized software, connect existing applications, or develop selected capabilities internally.
The answer will depend on the actual value received, including reliability, convenience, integration, and support.
The responsibilities that come with custom software
Developing an application is only one part of operating it.
Commercial software providers generally take responsibility for maintaining their products, issuing updates, addressing security vulnerabilities, and supporting customers. A business that builds its own systems assumes more of these responsibilities.
An application may function correctly today but encounter problems when a marketplace changes its interface, an external service becomes unavailable, or business requirements evolve.
AI coding tools can assist with troubleshooting and modifications. However, generated code still requires testing, documentation, appropriate access controls, and monitoring. Chip’s presentation included safeguards worth noting.
His system reportedly retains human approval for outgoing financial payments, while certain email integrations have read-only permissions. These restrictions help prevent automated processes from taking actions beyond their intended authority.
There is also the question of continuity. If the original developer or system administrator becomes unavailable, can another qualified person maintain the applications? Are the source code, credentials, backups, and documentation properly managed?
A business may reduce its dependence on several software vendors while creating a new dependence on its own internal platform.
The risks have changed rather than disappeared.
Furthermore, BC Hub still relies on external marketplaces, cloud infrastructure, payment services, accounting tools, and AI providers. Developing customized applications provides greater control over selected workflows without making the company independent of outside technology.
What can Philippine businesses learn?
Chip presented three broad approaches to developing business systems: connecting existing applications without writing new software, combining commercial tools with customized modules, and building a more extensive internal platform.
This distinction is particularly relevant to Philippine MSMEs. A small retailer may find that its needs can be addressed by connecting existing sales and inventory applications. Developing an entire platform could introduce expenses and responsibilities that the business is not prepared to manage.
A growing distributor or manufacturer, meanwhile, may have recurring requirements involving purchasing, inventory allocation, supplier coordination, and financial reporting that standard applications do not adequately address.
For such businesses, targeted custom development may be worth evaluating. The starting point should be a specific operational problem.
Which activities require employees to transfer information repeatedly between systems? Where do reporting inconsistencies affect decisions? What business rules are difficult to implement using existing applications?
Once the problem is defined, the company can compare available solutions and determine whether the expected benefits justify their total costs.
For example, a business might initially develop an integration that consolidates orders from different sales channels and prepares an inventory report. Its usefulness can be assessed through processing time, accuracy, reliability, and maintenance requirements.
There is no need to replace every existing application to benefit from AI-assisted development.
Businesses should also recognize that software providers are improving their own products and adding AI capabilities. A function that requires custom development today may eventually become available through an existing subscription.
The decision to build or subscribe therefore needs periodic review.
A new choice for business owners
Chip Ge’s experience demonstrates how AI-assisted coding is expanding what entrepreneurs can develop for their own operations.
His platform is an example of what can be achieved when business requirements, operating procedures, and technical capabilities are brought together. It is not necessarily a model that every company should replicate.
What makes the development worth watching is the possibility of creating software around business-specific knowledge and requirements at a cost and level of effort that may be more manageable than in the past.
For Philippine businesses, this presents an opportunity to examine whether their current systems adequately support the decisions they need to make.
As AI makes software development more accessible, business owners face a more consequential question: Do they understand their operations well enough to determine what their software should do?
