Howdy 👋🏾.

My non-programmer brother just axed his first SaaS subscription. James texted me after ChatGPT’s latest update dropped. He’d used AI to build a WordPress plugin that he used to pay for monthly. Just like that, one recurring expense was gone. He’s not alone, I’m increasingly hearing the same story from friends and clients replacing lightweight SaaS tools with AI-generated code that’s just good enough to solve their problems.

Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, is talking about this shift. Last year, he said that AI agents will fundamentally transform or kill SaaS as we know it. When the head of one of the biggest SaaS companies acknowledges this disruption, you know something real is happening.

These are vibe coders, people using AI tools like Claude Code or GitHub Copilot to create fast, functional software for personal or business use. They’re not developers, but they’re shipping tools that work. More often than not, it saves time, money, and frustration.

I ran into it myself just last weekend. I wanted to offer attendees of my upcoming workshops a digital certificate, something they could post to LinkedIn that gives credibility and includes a verification link. Simple concept, but I wanted to add some polish for folks investing their time with me.

I found several SaaS platforms built for exactly this: LinkedIn-friendly badges, PDFs, verification links, even analytics. But here’s the thing: it’s a subscription. Hundreds of dollars a year, forever. In a pre-AI world, I probably would’ve signed up.

Instead, I gave myself a few hours with GitHub Copilot. By afternoon, I had a working MVP: certificate generation, verification URLs, PDF exports, and social sharing images. It doesn’t check every box the SaaS platform does, but it does what I need. It’s mine, no recurring fees, no feature bloat, just a clean tool that does exactly what I need. That’s the shift happening right now.

With the right prompts and a few hours, people are shipping tools that used to require teams. More importantly, they’re building things they used to write off as impossible, not because the ideas were bad, but because custom development was too expensive.

For years, businesses have sacrificed better customer experiences and workflows, not because they didn’t care, but because building wasn’t feasible. Now it is.
Before you buy yet another platform with a login and a logo, it’s worth asking: Could we build this instead?

Because now, you probably can.

If your subscription stack is growing or your tools don’t fit how you work, it might be time to build. If you want to explore this but aren’t sure where to start, that’s exactly what we help with at PerryLabs, guiding you through lightweight AI builds that replace overhead with ownership.

-jason

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🎉The AI Evolution Workshops

I’m launching The AI Evolution Workshops, practical sessions designed for professionals and leaders who want to master the basics of AI without the jargon. Each workshop blends clear instruction, live demos, and hands-on prompting so you can turn AI into real workflows that support your team.

We’ll be running a mix of virtual and in-person sessions, so you can join from anywhere or connect face-to-face. Every attendee also gets a copy of The AI Evolution book and 90-day access to the recording.

Sept. 18 – The AI Evolution Workshop: Practical AI for Today | Washington, DC

Sept. 23 – The AI Evolution Workshop: Practical AI for Today | Houston, TX

👉🏾 Spots are limited – register here: https://jasonmperry.com/workshops/

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🔗 The Best in Tech This Week

🧪 Is GPT-5 Worse Than 4o? – The much-hyped GPT-5 is finally here, and while one of its biggest features is the ability to dynamically switch between a reasoning model and a fast response model, early reactions are mixed. Ars Technica ran a head-to-head comparison with GPT-4o and the results? Not exactly mind-blowing.

📝 Grammarly’s AI Glow-Up – Grammarly is back with a sleek redesign and new AI tools. It’s trying to stay relevant as AI becomes more embedded in your writing stack, but it still feels like it’s walking the fine line between coach and narc.

🍏 Siri Might Finally Not Suck – Apple’s finally admitting Siri needs a brain transplant, and rumor is it might be powered by Claude or ChatGPT. As a longtime Apple fanboy, I just want Siri to answer questions like “When will it rain?” without sounding like a confused ghost.

🏛️ OpenAI and Anthropic Go Federal – It’s the ultimate land-and-expand play: OpenAI is offering ChatGPT to federal agencies for just $1. Anthropic followed with its own deal, and the race to become the government’s default AI is on. This is a classic lock-in strategy; ask WordPerfect how that played out.

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🎤 The AI Roadshow: Talks & Beyond

Sept. 16 – AI & Tech Summit w/ Central Maryland Chamber
Sept. 25 – BannerX w/ The Baltimore Banner
Nov. 04 – WTCI AGILE Series
Nov. 20 – AI Summit Europe

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📕 The AI Evolution

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P.S. Before you go…

Remember when Grok praised Hitler and called itself “MechaHitler”? Elon Musk blamed X users for the manipulation, but the damage was done.

Microsoft has since hit pause on its enterprise rollout, quietly moving Grok access to “preview only” while it figures out how to de-risk a model that goes off the rails. Meanwhile, a U.S. government agency reportedly dropped the tool altogether after internal backlash, and Grok is noticeably absent from the AI vendors currently being deployed across federal systems.

In a topsy-turvy 2025, it’s at least nice to know (so far) that MechaHitler won’t be the AI running my Social Security plan.