The rise of AI tools and new AI wrappers is happening so fast that it feels like they are the latest trend, similar to how many JavaScript frameworks emerged in a short time. I am certain that we are living in an AI bubble and the cash burned during these times is never going to be recovered. Also, there is a lot of vibe coding happening right now with AI wrappers that will create a lot of technical debt once the bubble bursts.
Large companies are now pushing for the use of AI in everything. Most of the features in AI are very generic and unnecessary. Customers end up paying extra for unwanted features because big companies add them to market AI innovation, rather than based on customer demand. I am not saying that AI is bad but there are good instances of using AI in a company. For example, you could use it to correct your email by fixing the grammar or tone to ensure that you are communicating correctly. Nevertheless, “AI everything” is not the right approach because the human touch cannot be replaced easily even if it is more expensive for a company.
There are companies that lost their identity and stopped being special to the public because they have chosen AI over their workers. Examine the Duolingo AI debacle, where customers are expressing significant dissatisfaction. Duolingo was a beloved app used by millions. Why on earth would you want it to be an all-AI learning app? Duolingo should focus on enhancing the user experience with AI without replacing the human element.
AI Investors Living in a Bubble
Investors are always looking for the next unicorn, and most of the time they get blindsided by the new shiny object because it is AI and it is trending. We saw how Builder.ai was fake but valued at 1.5 billion dollars until it came to the public that the “AI” was really hundreds of engineers pretending to be artificial intelligence and doing things manually. With the desperation of finding the new big thing, they are not doing the due diligence and are getting scammed, thinking that they got “the future.”
Technical Debt
Once the AI slows down or the bubble bursts, we are going to realize how much damage the belief that AI can do everything has hurt us and how much money has been wasted. All the code created with AI must be maintained, and it is very difficult to vibe code exact changes to the application. We usually complain about human error, but in life-depending instances, I would prefer a human over any machine for the task.
Mistake of Replacing Engineers
You are still going to need engineers that know what they are doing. AI is useful for enhancing the productivity of an engineer, but not at replacing the engineer. For example, an engineer could speed up the development of a feature by generating code for an Ajax request with AI. However, he/she is still responsible for the outcome and functionality of the feature. I won’t trust a half baked app made with AI in which the creator is not a software developer in any capacity. In a very delicate scenario where millions of lives depend on the code produced, I would always go with the human because the person in charge knows the context and the magnitude of the consequences.
Mistake of Replacing Designers
There are two things in which AI cannot replace designers: empathy and creativity. No matter how much an algorithm would try, at the end of the day it is a fake empathy towards the users. Empathy is used by designers to put themselves into the users shoes and deeply understand their needs and problems so they can be solved with the UI and achieve a better user experience. Creativity is the means which empathy and understanding of the user’s needs allows a designer gets to solve the problems. The output of AI is what it has been fed, and there is no new knowledge created, nor is there any creativity involved. Human ingenuity or imagination cannot be replaced with AI, and this is one of the biggest drivers that move society forward.
Conclusion
Everything happening right now with AI, we lived through in the late 90s with the tech bubble. I hope companies focus on using AI to boost productivity rather than cutting costs and firing employees. The human element is necessary, and just replacing it with AI is a mistake. We should train our staff to deliver an exceptional customer experience and exceed expectations with our products and services.
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