Episode Details

How do you decide whether to buy a ready-made AI solution or build one from the ground up? The choice is more than just a technical decision; it's about aligning AI with your business goals. In this episode, Lois Houston and Nikita Abraham are joined by Principal Instructor Yunus Mohammed to examine the critical factors influencing the buy vs. build debate. They explore real-world examples where businesses must weigh speed, customization, and long-term strategy. From a startup using a SaaS chatbot to a bank developing a custom fraud detection model, Yunus provides practical insights on when to choose one approach over the other. AI for You: https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/course/ai-for-you/152601/ Oracle University Learning Community: https://education.oracle.com/ou-community LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/oracle-university/ X: https://x.com/Oracle_Edu Special thanks to Arijit Ghosh, David Wright, Kris-Ann Nansen, Radhika Banka, and the OU Studio Team for helping us create this episode. --------------------------------------------------------------- Episode Transcript:

00:00

Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we'll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let's get started!

00:26

Nikita: Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast! I'm Nikita Abraham, Team Lead: Editorial Services with Oracle University, and with me is Lois Houston, Director of Innovation Programs.

Lois: Hi there! Last week, we spoke about the key stages in a typical AI workflow and how data quality, feedback loops, and business goals influence AI success.

00:50

Nikita: In today's episode, we're going to explore whether you should buy or build AI apps. Joining us again is Principal Instructor Yunus Mohammed. Hi Yunus, let's jump right in. Why does the decision of buy versus build matter?

Yunus: So when we talk about buy versus build matters, we need to consider the strategic business decisions over here. They are related to the strategic decisions which the business makes, and it is evaluated in the decision lens.

So the center of the decision lens is the business objective, which identifies what are we trying to solve. Then evaluate our constraints based on that particular business objective like the cost, the time, and the talent. And finally, we can decide whether we need to buy or build.

But remember, there is no single correct answer. What's right for one business may not be working for the other one.

01:54

Lois: OK, can you give us examples of both approaches?

Yunus: The first example where we have got a startup using a SaaS AI chatbot.

Now, being a startup, they have to choose a ready-made solution, which is an AI chatbot. Now, the question is, why did they do this? Because speed and simplicity mattered more than deep customization that is required for the chatbot. So, their main aim was to have it ready in short period of time and make it more simpler. And this actually lead them to get to the market fast with low upfront cost and minimal technical complexities.

But in some situations, it might be different. Like, your bank, which needs to build a fraud model. It cannot be outsourced or got from the shelf. So, they build a custom model in-house.

With this custom model, they actually have a tighter control, and it is tuned to their standards. And it is created by their experts. So the