How _SaaS_ shows up in this material SaaS — software as a service — appears here as the incumbent model that malleable-software research is reacting against. In the referenced conversation, the researcher explains that at a startup building school software, teachers kept asking for small changes — a word changed to match how they teach, a little button added — and the company kept saying no. That refusal is described as normal in SaaS, and it is precisely what motivated the search for a different approach. [^2f66cf63-ce0a-54e3-b494-f4f9b646a320@104] The hotel metaphor To understand what SaaS implies for users, the host offers a metaphor: most software today is like staying at a hotel. Everyone using Gmail or Spotify gets the same room, run by the company, with the same fixtures as everybody else — you can put your luggage in, but the room itself was never yours. [^2f66cf63-ce0a-54e3-b494-f4f9b646a320@218] What comes after SaaS The conversation points past SaaS toward bespoke apps customized by AI — the short answer given in the host's article What Comes After SaaS. [^2f66cf63-ce0a-54e3-b494-f4f9b646a320@195] Instead of everyone staying in the same software 'hotel room', tools become shaped by the person using them. - SaaS is the status quo being questioned: pre-made tools that don't adapt to individual workflows.- Its characteristic friction: requests for small customization get refused — that refusal is described as normal in SaaS.- The hotel metaphor captures it: every user gets the same room, owned and run by the company.- The explored alternative is malleable, AI-customized software — tools that work for the user, not for a product manager.