# McKinsey: 32% of Enterprises Skip Software Purchases for AI Coding Tools

> Nearly a third of organizations have started building their own software with agentic AI coding tools rather than buying it off the shelf, according to McKinsey's State of AI 2026. In a survey of 1,719 respondents run from early May to early June, 32 percent said they had skipped a purchase to build internally, led by the tech sector at 41 percent and healthcare at 39 percent, with professional services and energy close behind. That is a meaningful crack in the classic build-versus-buy calculus. For decades, buying a proven product beat staffing up to build a worse version yourself. When an agentic tool can stand up custom software quickly and cheaply, that math starts to flip for more use cases. The read McKinsey draws is that agentic coding has crossed from experiment to production, reshaping how companies procure software. It is also a warning shot for software vendors whose moat was the sheer effort of building an alternative, effort AI is steadily driving toward zero.

_Section: [Daily AI Updates](https://www.wortins.com/daily-ai) · Source: McKinsey State of AI 2026 · Published Thursday, September 3, 2026_

## Wortins' read

Nearly a third of organizations have started building their own software with agentic AI coding tools rather than buying it off the shelf, according to McKinsey's State of AI 2026. In a survey of 1,719 respondents run from early May to early June, 32 percent said they had skipped a purchase to build internally, led by the tech sector at 41 percent and healthcare at 39 percent, with professional services and energy close behind. That is a meaningful crack in the classic build-versus-buy calculus. For decades, buying a proven product beat staffing up to build a worse version yourself. When an agentic tool can stand up custom software quickly and cheaply, that math starts to flip for more use cases. The read McKinsey draws is that agentic coding has crossed from experiment to production, reshaping how companies procure software. It is also a warning shot for software vendors whose moat was the sheer effort of building an alternative, effort AI is steadily driving toward zero.

## Source

[Read the full story at McKinsey State of AI 2026](https://www.beri.net/article/mckinsey-state-of-ai-2026-agentic-coding-build-vs-buy-run-cost)

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