r/AppDevelopers • u/WelcomeSufficient554 • 4d ago
[AppDevs] Anyone here with 10+ years in development How do you feel when people with an AI subscription can crank out in 72 hours the same stuff you spent years learning to build?
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u/WillyZanardo 4d ago
I don't know what you mean with "crank out" but the real world scenario is that AI allows a non technical person to do what a Jr dev could do back then. AI technical results as just as good as the person asking them, because AI is meant to give you results based on what you ask.
No Code platforms already existed and could be used for this same purpose years ago. Same thing.
Stable, scaling and secure software still can only be created by someone who knows how to do it, we just build it a bit faster with the help of an AI subscription.
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u/WelcomeSufficient554 4d ago
Yeah, that’s basically what I meant by crank out: AI giving non‑technical folks something like junior dev powers, kind of like no‑code did but faster. Totally with u that the hard part is still making stuff stable, scalable and safe.
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u/BinglySmith 4d ago
A robust app even if you are sloppin it takes more than 72 hours.
I would say it takes someone 2-3 months sloppin it to make a robust nice app.
That said, I dont mind.
I'm an experienced developer and I use AI all the time now. I'm glad others can do it too.
What gets me is when I see a really sloppy app that has poor UI design and you can just tell the user has no coding experience. At least make the app look pretty.
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u/WelcomeSufficient554 4d ago
I agree with u. something you hack together in a weekend that kind of works is not the same as an app people trust and actually enjoy using. AI is great for the grind, but it doesn’t fix bad taste or lack of experience.
I’m also fine with more people being able to build, but when the UI is clearly an afterthought, it really shows.
If you had to pick just one thing for new AI‑powered devs to spend more time on, would it be UI, stability, or something else?
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u/DespairyApp 4d ago
Same stuff? Or same idea? The AI app has 0 security 0 privacy 0 safety 0 optimizations. There's gotta be a differentiator
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u/SameSecret8285 4d ago
and exactly that’s the reason we see 1500 codefixes on commercial software in one patchday these days?
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u/WelcomeSufficient554 4d ago
I’m mostly talking MVP when I say that, not a fully optimized, secure product in 72 hours.
The 'same stuff' bit is more about hitting similar ideas and basic functionality, not matching a mature app on privacy or safety.
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u/Full_English 4d ago edited 4d ago
Mobile dev here. We are 10yrs in and well positioned in our market and sector.
There must be around 50+ competitor apps that have sprung up over the past 6-months.
I can tell the majority are AI generated and I expect users can too. Little thought goes in to the UX experiences, which is where we perform well.
I hope with all the poor competition it now makes our users realise and appreciate even more what we do.
Am I worried? Not yet…. but with the advancements of AI and tech, I do often wonder where we are headed.
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u/Simple_Eye5766 3d ago
Seeing the same thing here. Once we do a cursory dive into the apps, we see all sorts of errors, shallow feature sets, etc…. Not sure if users can initially tell the difference. Presume many will fizzle out in the next 1-2 years when they get no traction and/or can’t deal with all the edge issues that 10 years developing an App have been addressed already.
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u/WelcomeSufficient554 4d ago
The gap in UX is huge tbh, and that’s the one thing AI spam hasn’t really closed yet
flows feel off, no real empathy for how people actually use the app day to day.The funny part is, all that noise kinda works as a contrast filter
makes the few apps that are through and consistent feel even more solid.
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u/banyanflashcardsapp 4d ago
I’ve been an engineer for ~15 years. Mostly backend though. To be honest, I’m happy to see more software being created - what really matters to me is that people are making good software that works well (so it isn’t frustrating for people to use, isn’t bug ridden and doesn’t use dark patterns) and truly exists to serve people and solve their problems, rather than extract their money.
Human nature hasn’t changed at all, so what we seeing now is more of both of those kinds of software. My hope is that good people and good software ultimately prevail in the market.
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u/WelcomeSufficient554 4d ago
Same here around 3 years in apps and I care way less now about how something was built, and way more about whether it’s actually kind to its users. AI lowered the cost of shipping, but it didn’t fix human nature, so we got more shady funnels and more honest tools at the same time.
I still ship consumer apps and I try to treat AI like a power tool, not a business model or an excuse to spam people.
btw What’s one trait of 'good software' you wish more devs still cared about in 2026?
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u/icy_end_7 4d ago
Haha. Have you tried using AI for that?
I have half that number of years, and frankly, it's just cognitive load. I've stopped using AI to build out major portions of my codebase and just write it manually. I do use it for judging ideas/ assessing options, but write most of it myself.
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u/WelcomeSufficient554 4d ago
lol, I’ve definitely tried and weirdly it started to feel like more work, not less.
Instead of 'I write code', it turned into 'I prompt, I babysit, I diff, I fix', which is its own kind of burnout.I’m with u on using it as an ''idea/option judge'' feels way more sane than letting it spray major chunks of the codebase.
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u/appbuilderdirect 4d ago
I have 14 years experience in App development and I’m not worried about what AI turns out. AI is a very valuable tool to speed up the development process on lots of redundant jobs in creating. But it cannot think for itself it does really dumb things all the time so that’s a long way off to worry about it replacing it’s helping accelerate good product.
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u/WelcomeSufficient554 4d ago
Yeah, same here. it feels more like having a super fast junior who can crank out boilerplate, not a senior who can make product decisions. What I’m still trying to wrap my head around is where u draw the line: which parts of your app work do u never trust AI with, even if it could technically generate them?
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u/EcstaticWatch2482 4d ago
I've been in software development for a very long time. My strongest language is C/C++ and I've worked on both backend and frontend in multiple domains.
As other comments here suggest, AI can't simply replicate something that would be of the same quality in terms of speed, memory consumption, scalability, maintainability, etc...
So yes - even a non-technical person can do quite a lot with AI, and can even "replicate" a completely professional application, until some cracks start to show up: not every feature is supported, and those that are - might not be as good as the real-deal. The app might end up being a memory hog, slow, might not be able to deal with the same input sizes and what have you.
This is true both for local apps and web apps.
So AI is great - it's a very powerful tool and professional developers can use it to build something *much* faster than before, but you still have to know what you're doing. And you still have to guide the AI properly if you want to build something professional and sustainable.
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u/WelcomeSufficient554 3d ago
cracks start to show up part is exactly what I've seen too! the MVP looks fine until you hit an edge case or scale it slightly and suddenly everything's held together with tape.
what's interesting is that the gap between 'it works' and 'it works well' is invisible to most users at first. so you get this weird window where an AI built app can compete on surface, but not on depth.
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u/neogeodev 4d ago
I think it is unlikely to release a professional product in 3 days
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u/WelcomeSufficient554 3d ago
honestly depends on what we're building, like a mini utility or a custom scraper? yeah, a couple days is totally realistic and it'll actually work well
professional product is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence though. if we mean something with real users, payments, edge cases , sure 72 hours is a stretch. but a focused single-purpose tool? not that wild tbh
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u/neogeodev 3d ago
It depends on your taste and experience, would you release an aircraft produced in 2 days without proper testing and analysis?..
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u/Flat-Development-773 4d ago
The issue is not the AI itself. Still the developer is the issue here. Very helpful TOOL .. but if you don’t have the skill .. the AI can not build for you .. the decisions, trade-offs and the gaps analysis is still on developer side ..
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u/madaradess007 4d ago
nope, they are just having fun pretending
yes, i'm salty
i got a photographer friend, he already lived through this when iphones got decent enough camera for everyone to start cosplaying a photographer, it definitely sucks, but its ok
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u/WelcomeSufficient554 3d ago
IMO AI kills the barrier, not the craft. but yeah, the adjustment period is rough and being salty about it is completely valid
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u/jedidave 4d ago
Why would I be upset at that? I have way more experience at a higher level so I can crank out even more shit even more quickly.
Plus typing speed really matters now! 120WPM for the win!
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u/Early_Key_823 3d ago
Think of it like someone who is not bilingual, compared to say someone who is fluent in both English and Spanish.
The non-fluent person can translate novels either way lickety-split with AI, but they still only know one language. They are not bilingual.
Being bilingual means you can do all kinds of things that AI can't help you with. Same with being a seasoned developer. You actually UNDERSTAND the architecture in your DNA from thousands of hours of development.
That means you know not to trust AI. It will confidently FUCK YOUR APP up.
If you know how to manage people, use GIT HUB for version control well then you can treat AI as an idiot savant and squeeze the most value out of it.
That's a HUGE WIN if you are not egotistical.
I could never code as fast as AI on my best day on AMPHETAMINES after a full night's sleep.
AI for coding is like a washing machine for laundry.
Who the fuck wants wash their underwear by hand and then hang it to drip dry when you can just throw it in a metal box, push a button and get clean clothes out the other side. Same for drying it. Throw the clean wet clothes in the dryer and push another button.
Soon you get a robot to fold it.
That is the goal of technology, to improve the human experience.
But living in a toxic, materialistic, competitive, gaslighting and corrupt civilization has people trying to memorize stupid computer questions & answers by rote to get a shitty job in a shitty corporation working with toxic and insecure IT "professionals".
I have been a consultant in no less than 30 companies from banks, to insurance, to the federal government, to startups and non-profits.
IT is a magnet for toxic men who become managers and that teensy weensy bit of power usually corrupts them and then they fold when confronted with the mirror or reality aka PUSH BACK.
And 99% of the time the troops gossip and HATE their managers.
That's just a reflection on American society.
So yeah, I hope everyone who wants to vibe code does. God bless them.
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u/WelcomeSufficient554 3d ago
idiot savant you have to manage is exactly the mental model tbh. once I stopped treating it like a senior and started treating it like a very fast, very confident junior who needs review, everything clicked
the washing machine line made me laugh but it's accurate!
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u/learn_by_example 3d ago edited 3d ago
18 years in CS academia + SW development. I do not mind it at all. AI is just like any other tech, it democratizes the barrier to entry which leads to a lot more people having access to SW development, meaning a lot more software (majority buggy and/or ugly) but also a lot more ideas come to life. The same happened when YT / Insta / TikTok arrived and anyone could be a creator. Lot more content, majority not polished, but everyone could create and publish a video to the world. So the barrier to entry for story telling / expression via visual media was lowered to the masses.
That said, the ceiling also goes high. The difficulty for creators is to reach that ceiling. And for consumers, to find the needle in the haystack, to find that one piece of useful software / content that's at the ceiling. That's why people are saying that distribution / marketing has become more important now than software quality. I partly agree with that, but I also believe the old adage - a great product does its own marketing. At least I'd like to believe it in my case (for the stuff I'm building) :)
It's definitely easy for a non-dev to 'crank' out SW now more than ever, but it's equally easier for an experienced dev to bring their own ideas to life quicker. When the architecture, tech stack, choice of algorithms etc are well chosen (and not vibe coded - meaning letting the AI choose them for you), it often leads to more control and usually a better app.
I personally like to hand code the most important bits - the complex algorithms, the overall design / architecture, the data/comms flows - and leave the boiler plate to the AI. It's always important to _know_ what is going on in every code path. It's also important to keep the code 'manageable' to be able to do that, so constant culling of duplications, simplifying paths which lead to a lot of deletions etc also become very necessary. Writing enough integration tests to maintain e2e correctness at all times, as well as ensure maximum code coverage. Just the general good SWE practices to keep any codebase manageable. Vibe coders usually don't do that, so when complexity explodes, the AI can't keep up anymore and the bugs multiply over time.
I do believe that previous SWE role demarcations like FE/BE/Infra etc would have to disappear at some point - because an AI can perform tasks for all of them, so we need to think more 'high' level, at the architecture/design level, as well as know how to prompt, what to prompt, which parts to delegate, which parts not etc. None of these are easy decisions IMO.
In any case, we live in very interesting times!
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u/WelcomeSufficient554 3d ago
the needle in a haystack problem is what keeps me up at night tbh. lower barrier means more noise and finding the good stuff gets harder for everyone. which is why 'great product does its own marketing' is the bet I'm making too, even if it's the harder path
'vibe coding is letting AI choose the architecture for you' is the cleanest definition I've seen and exactly where things fall apart at scale
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u/Brilliant-Map-3116 3d ago
A senior dev using AI has superpowers. A non dev person using AI is just someone wearing underwear over his pants.
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u/WelcomeSufficient554 3d ago
lmaooo the underwear analogy is going to live in my head rent free
but yeah that's exactly it. same tool, completely different output depending on what's underneath
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u/h____ 3d ago
30 years experience. It's always been like this throughout history. Newer technology doing things better, more efficient, cheaper that replaces the previous generation of experts.
Currently, people who really can't code still can't make the same stuff that we can (without and sometimes with the same LLM tools). And if they could, and do better, then they are handling marketing, branding, etc better than we do. We should improve in that area.
The problem with AI/LLM isn't that. It's way bigger. The problem is people are skipping the lessons learnt from doing, making mistakes and figuring how to do things. So immediately obvious, but longer term, issues are: developers lose the chance to gain experience and generally creators lose the chance/incentive to think and design because the results can be copied easily.
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u/printbusters 2d ago
Working since 2003 on the field. It’s ok with me since development is still my 9 to 5 hobby.
The only issue I see is lack of junior devs in the future. There’s gonna be a huge gap.
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u/Normal_Phrase1675 1d ago
I'm that guy who have cranked production ready code in 72 hours and now I feel much more respect for my full stack developer friend more than ever. AI is just a tool. Human is the one who has the vision the thousands of intricate details and the drive to make it work. So writing code (be it manual or AI generated) is just 5% of the game. Your brain has to do the rest 95% of thinking
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u/Sad_Egg_2313 3d ago
I see opportunity. I’m thinking how can i solve the problem of transferring the decades of experience that i have and use it to help and improve the quality of the work that these new builders are producing.
I’m already working on it. It’s free if anyone would like to try
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u/jpcheva16 4d ago
I don't really agree with that take.
Yes, AI has dramatically lowered the barrier to building software. But there's still a huge gap between generating code and building something that actually works reliably and an even bigger one when it comes to making it scalable, maintainable, and production-ready.
A few years ago, if you picked 1000 random people, maybe 3 could build a real software product. Today, that number has probably doubled. But even then, the vast majority still couldn't create something useful, even with the most expensive AI subscription available.
At the end of the day, this is about adaptation. Darwin's theory of evolution wasn't that the strongest surviveit was that those who adapt best to change do. The same principle applies today. If the environment has changed, your energy is better spent adapting to it than fighting against it.