TOPIC

The era of diminishing software subscriptions and the explosion of custom applications is here! Multiple news stories are reporting that businesses are increasingly using AI to build custom apps, replacing expensive software subscriptions with solutions that can be built in a weekend and are tailored to their specific needs.

This month, we’ll take a look at a similar endeavor that replaced a CRM (Customer Relationship Manager) application, combining information from an accounting system and scattered notes, and residing on a phone allowing instant viewing, updating, and contacting customers.

This project is also a candidate for June’s topic where we asked what we are doing with AI that we would not have had the time to do previously. This is not a simple project and without AI doing a lot of the heavy lifting, it’s unlikely it would’ve been done–or it would’ve taken several weeks.

There are three major interesting parts:

• Reading information from an online accounting system’s API as the “source of truth” for the bulk of the data.
• Storing and managing this and additional data in a Firebird database through a RAD Server module.
• Bringing it all together in a user-friendly mobile application.

David Cornelius will demonstrate the running application and (try to) explain the code behind all this.

References:

• $100 and 120 Hours: How One Business Owner Replaced Six Tools
• The CTO’s Guide to Replacing High-Cost SaaS Tools with Custom AI Software
• Salesforce Unsubscriptions Replaced by AI-Built Software
• Making sense of the SaaSpocalypse

DATE/TIME

Wednesday, October 21, 2026 6:00 - 8:00 PM

LOCATION

Olive Garden in Lake Oswego
6355 SW Meadows Rd.
Lake Oswego, OR 97035