The Era of Personalized Software

AI gives everyone and their mother access to software building. More importantly, it gives them access to personalized software that is tailored to their specific needs or wants.

We used to describe the kind of app or solution we wanted to Google and get suggestions for somewhat generic solutions. Then we had to adapt our whole working system around those tools, because they were built for the general public and were hard to tailor to any specific flow.

Now, we can tell AI what we want, and it can generate something close to our requirements, then publish it on the web right away for personal use, for a small circle of friends, or for family members to perform a particular task.

Examples

For example, a running club can build a PWA to track their running performance, render the specific charts or graphs that matter to them, track all events they have participated in, and track their performance at those events.

Another example is people building a very specific personal finance tracker. They can import transactions from a local bank that most software does not integrate with, log various assets that most SaaS products do not think of as an option, and make projections based on certain formulas. Their data could live locally or in their own database, so there is less worry about data privacy.

What developers can build

What we, as experienced developers, can do is build small, well-tested, well-documented, and integratable primitive blocks like utilities, tools, integration templates, starter packs, SDKs, workflows, hosted APIs, custom skills, and plug-and-play infrastructure that AI can easily browse, understand, and use to assemble larger systems.

What is in it for us?

If software becomes more personalized, developers may not need to chase only the old SaaS dream of building one product for ten million users. Instead, the opportunity may shift toward building one small but valuable capability that thousands of AI-generated apps depend on.

A normal user may ask AI to build a personal finance tracker, a family inventory app, a small business CRM, a local booking system, or a custom workflow tool. But behind those generated apps, there still needs to be real infrastructure: authentication, payments, file storage, search, notifications, analytics, data processing, scraping, compliance, backup, deployment, and integrations.

That is where developers still matter.

The developer’s role changes from only building finished applications to also building the rails, components, and services that make personalized software possible.

The barrier to entry is also becoming almost nonexistent. A small utility that is well-tested, well-documented, and useful for a real use case is now easier than ever to build with AI. We no longer need a huge team, a large budget, or a full SaaS platform to create something valuable. Sometimes we just need a good idea, a clear use case, and the ability to package it well enough for other people, or AI, to use.

This means developers can create value by building small primitives that are simple, reliable, and easy to integrate. These can be open-source libraries, hosted APIs, templates, starter packs, data processors, scraping tools, automation workflows, or custom skills. Some can be free contributions. Some can become paid services. Some can become the infrastructure layer behind many personalized apps.

So maybe the next opportunity for developers is not always to build the final app. Maybe it is to build the small, reliable blocks that many final apps are built from.

These primitive building blocks could serve as a great contribution to humanity, because they make software creation easier, more personal, and more accessible to everyone.

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Footnote: This thought came from a mix of things I have been noticing while doing heavy coding with AI, building various small projects, thinking about personalized software, and seeing what my peers are building with AI. I later came across Mitchell Hashimoto’s “Building Block Economy”, which helped solidify this idea for me. His framing around building blocks partly inspired this post, while my angle here is more focused on customized and personalized software for personal use, friends and family, and niche groups.