In the tech industry, where innovation drives progress, an extensive and established codebase has traditionally been considered a valuable company asset, the result of years of investment and accumulated expertise. However, Sridhar Vembu, founder and CEO of the renowned SaaS company Zoho, today, May 23, 2025, voiced a provocative opinion that might compel many to rethink this assertion. In a series of posts on the X platform (formerly Twitter), which quickly garnered attention from industry media, Vembu expressed Sridhar Vembu's AI concerns that the rapid development of generative artificial intelligence could drastically change the value of existing software assets, potentially turning them from an advantage into a significant burden.
The Threat of Obsolescence: When an Asset Becomes a Problem
According to Vembu, the emergence of increasingly powerful AI tools for development, analysis, and even automatic code generation could render the maintenance and evolution of cumbersome legacy systems economically unviable. "The huge existing codebases we always thought were our 'moats' could very quickly become our 'prisons'," he wrote, emphasizing that the complexity and inertia of such systems might prevent companies from rapidly adapting to new technological realities dictated by AI. He suggests that new AI-driven development approaches might not just supplement existing practices but completely displace them in some areas, offering faster, more flexible, and efficient ways to create software. This calls into question the long-term viability of products built on previous-generation technologies if they cannot be easily and quickly modernized with AI.
The Need to Rethink Strategies
The Zoho founder's statements serve as a serious warning to the entire software industry. Companies that have invested decades in building their products and accumulated millions of lines of code may face the need for a radical overhaul of their development and asset management strategies. Sridhar Vembu's AI concerns imply that simply adding AI features on top of an outdated architecture might not be enough. Instead, a complete redesign or even creating products from scratch using AI-centric approaches might be necessary to remain competitive. This, in turn, raises questions about the investments required for such a transformation and the future of specialists whose skills are tied to supporting legacy systems.
The Broader Context
Sridhar Vembu's opinion resonates with a broader discussion in the IT community about AI's impact on all aspects of software development – from code writing and testing to architectural design and project management. While many see AI as a tool for increasing productivity and automating routine tasks, Vembu's warning highlights its potential disruptive power for established business models and technology stacks. This underscores the importance for companies not only to adopt AI but also to deeply analyze how it will change the very essence of their products and processes. Time will tell how accurate his predictions are, but Sridhar Vembu's AI concerns are already stimulating an important discussion today about the future of software development in the age of AI.