AI Vocabulary · 06 Own Your AI
What is Build vs Buy?
The decision whether to develop an AI solution yourself, buy a ready product, or customise one with your own data.
Three paths are open. Buying gives you a finished tool that the vendor maintains. Customising combines a bought tool or a model via API with your instructions, your documents through RAG and your connectors. Building means developing the system yourself, with tests, monitoring and a team that keeps it running.
Companies increasingly buy. In Menlo Ventures' survey of 495 US enterprise decision-makers, 53% of AI use cases were bought in 2024 and 76% in 2025 (investor survey). Gartner estimated in 2024 that ways of deploying generative AI cost $5 million to $20 million.
Why it matters for you
Building ties up money and people for years; buying can create vendor lock-in. In the EU, customising has a legal side as well: if you rebrand a high-risk system or repurpose a general tool for a high-risk use, you count as its provider under Art. 25 of the AI Act.
Own it
Buy what everyone needs, customise with your own context, build only what sets you apart. Before you customise, check whether the result could fall under high-risk rules.
Where it comes from
There is no single coiner; the question is as old as business software. Current AI figures are in 2025: The State of Generative AI in the Enterprise by Menlo Ventures (December 2025). The legal rule is Art. 25 of the AI Act.
Related
Your AI Learning Hub
Learn the whole AI Vocabulary, step by step, and build with it. Build it. Own it.