For two decades, software-as-a-service (SaaS) reigned supreme. But the era of paying endless monthly subscriptions for rigid, per-seat dashboards—only for your staff to end up managing core operations on manual spreadsheets anyway—is officially over.

The AI revolution has permanently broken the old math of custom engineering. What once required nine months and a $250k agency budget can now be prototyped and deployed in weeks. For mid-market businesses, franchise networks, and scale-ups, the choice is no longer "rent or compromise"—its own and automate.

In this practical presentation, Craig Brown (Strategic Partner at Everest) breaks down how forward-thinking business leaders are ditching bloated SaaS stacks and building bespoke, AI-native operational engines.

However, building with AI isn't just about quick prototypes or letting unguided AI agents run wild across your systems. Craig will introduce the critical concept of the "AI Harness"—the security, data governance, and verification layers required to ensure your custom AI applications remain compliant, deterministic, and safe at enterprise scale.

Key Takeaways:

• Why Per-Seat SaaS is Dying: How AI-assisted development has set a price ceiling on generic software and made software ownership viable.
• The "AI Harness" Framework: How to prevent hallucinations, secure your data, and ensure your AI tools operate safely across your network.
• From Renting to Owning: A step-by-step roadmap to turn your company's single most painful operational bottleneck into a proprietary, high-value tech asset in under 30 days.