Software On-Demand in the World of Software As a Service: The Place for Vibe Coding Single or Simple Purpose Apps On-Demand

In today’s enterprise world—where security, cost, and speed matter more than ever—a quiet revolution is taking shape: business users are beginning to generate tailored, lightweight software tools on-demand, using AI.

I, like many others reading this (maybe you too?), have always had so many ideas that I couldn't bring to fruition on my own without deeper coding skills than I have. I have a notebook (well, a few physical ones, and thousands of notes for ideas on note taking software - no, Evernote, I'm not advertising for you here).

Now, more than ever, is the time you can feel empowered to build those proofs of concept (POC) or simple applications you had in mind (yes, the statement works for pretty much anything AI can do, including art such as music, image, poetry, and video - don't spam me with acusations of me saying "artists can be fully replaced by AI" this is not what I said here).

Now, instead of searching for a licensed SaaS solution, going through procurement, or submitting IT tickets, some of us are simply opening an AI assistant, describing what we need, and getting a usable Python script (for desktop or web) within minutes.

This is not a SaaS model. It's a new kind of interaction.

For the sake of brevity, I’ll call this model Software-On-Demand (SoD): the practice of generating small, focused applications via AI to solve one-off problems that don’t justify the friction of buying or deploying a full product.

What Is Vibe Coding?

To understand SoD, we need to acknowledge a deeper behavioral shift that’s making it possible—something I call Vibe Coding.

Vibe Coding is the act of co-creating software by describing your intent, constraints, and desired outcome conversationally to an AI assistant—without pre-defining the syntax, architecture, or framework. You don’t think like a programmer. You describe like a problem-solver. The AI translates your “vibe” into working code.

It’s what happens when:

• You ask ChatGPT to “make a script that takes all the PDFs in a folder and turns them into Markdown files.”
• You clarify that the file size must be under 2MB for upload to SharePoint.
• You say “I need this to run on both Windows and Mac.”

You're not coding. You're vibe coding.

Why SoD Over SaaS?

Let’s say your team needs to:

• Convert PDF documents to Markdown files
• Resize hundreds of images for a report
• Extract data from scanned invoices
• Split, merge, or compress PDFs
• Rename files in bulk based on metadata
• Automatically redact confidential terms in legal docs

These are all “low-friction, high-frustration” problems: clear and common, yet not worth the cycle time of buying a solution.

But there’s a catch:

• You can’t upload files to third-party cloud tools due to security policies
• Your IT team is backlogged, and buying software takes weeks
• The task is urgent and high-trust, often involving sensitive data

This is where SoD thrives. With AI, you can generate Python tools that run locally, require no license, and do exactly one thing well—in minutes.

Real-World Examples: Simple Tasks, Big Time-Savers

1. Convert PDFs to Markdown (.md)

• Goal: Make text easy to edit, reuse, or paste into AI/chat tools
• Traditional Way: Pay for Adobe or SaaS converters
• SoD Alternative: Use AI to build a Python PDF-to-Markdown converter

2. Resize Company Images

• Goal: Standardize image dimensions for presentations, web, or reports
• Traditional Way: Buy Photoshop license or online services
• SoD Alternative: Generate a Pillow-based script with AI

3. Resize Images by File Size (MB)

• Goal: Fit image size limits for uploads to email, CMS, or AI tools
• Traditional Way: Trial-and-error in image editors or paywalled online tools
• SoD Alternative: Use AI to generate a script that compresses/resizes to stay under a target file size

4. Split PDFs into Chapters

• Goal: Isolate sections for review, sharing, or archiving
• Traditional Way: Use PDFSam or similar tools
• SoD Alternative: AI creates a PyPDF2 script to split files in seconds

5. Redact Sensitive Info

• Goal: Comply with privacy/security standards (e.g., remove PII)
• Traditional Way: Manual search, risky cloud tools
• SoD Alternative: AI builds a local redactor script using regex or NLP

6. Bulk Rename Documents by Date

• Goal: Organize files chronologically or for version tracking
• Traditional Way: PowerShell or manual
• SoD Alternative: AI writes a cross-platform Python renamer tool

7. Strip Metadata from Images

• Goal: Prevent leaking location or creator data when sharing images
• Traditional Way: Use exiftool (with learning curve)
• SoD Alternative: AI writes a Python wrapper around Piexif

Sample Prompts for Software-On-Demand

Here’s how you might start a vibe coding session with an AI assistant:

1. Convert PDF to Markdown

"Write a Python script that converts a PDF file to clean Markdown using PyMuPDF or pdfminer."

2. Resize All Images in a Folder

"Generate a Python script using Pillow that resizes all images to 800x600 and saves them in a new folder."

3. Compress Image Under 2MB

"Create a Python script that takes a JPG and compresses it below 2MB without major quality loss."

4. Redact PII in Text Files

"Make a script that scans .txt files and redacts names, phone numbers, and emails using regex."

5. Rename Files by Last Modified Date

"Build a script that renames all files in a folder using their last modified timestamp in YYYYMMDD format."

Security and Compliance: SoD Runs Locally

Because SoD tools are AI-generated but executed on your local machine, they:

• Respect internal confidentiality rules
• Avoid cloud storage and third-party data processing
• Can be audited, modified, or versioned internally
• Require zero procurement delay

You gain speed without giving up security.

The “No-Code” Myth: This Is No-Code for the Enterprise

Even if you've never written Python, AI makes it feel like you're talking to an assistant—not an IDE. You ask. It builds. You adjust. It iterates. This is what no-code was always meant to be.

With SoD and vibe coding, domain experts can now:

• Build the tools they need
• Keep control of their data
• Ship faster than ever before

No licensing. No waiting. No offshoring.

SoD Complements SaaS, Not Replaces It

SaaS still matters—for complex, multi-user, always-on applications. But SoD shines when:

• SaaS: Broad platforms | SoD: Single-purpose utilities
• SaaS: Long onboarding | SoD: Instant generation
• SaaS: Monthly fees | SoD: Zero-cost code
• SaaS: Vendor lock-in | SoD: Fully modifiable
• SaaS: Cloud-first | SoD: Local-firstWhy This Matters

Why This Matters

• SoD gives knowledge workers control again
• Vibe coding bridges the gap between idea and implementation
• Enterprise teams gain velocity without compromising policy
• AI becomes more than a chatbot—it becomes a software partner

Thinking of a concept? Like the famous shoe brand would say: "Just do it! Now more quickly with AI!"

Well, maybe they didn't say that last part.

Have you created any apps using AI? Please share!

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