You don't need to make an AI app

If you’re feeling a bit of FOMO from all the AI apps popping up these days, consider this—

Availability bias is making us feel like everyone is on the AI product bandwagon and maybe we need to get on it, too.

But the real message should be that slapping a UI on a great pre-existing model and crafting a few prompts is now easy to do. That’s why it’s taking off like wildfire.

What's still challenging?
1️⃣ Gathering high-quality, proprietary data
2️⃣ Building specialized features (and, yes, prompts) for a niche market
3️⃣ Computing power (though Databricks recently showed that 30 minutes of fine-tuning on a small model could produce ChatGPT-like outputs)
4️⃣ The usual suspects: UI/UX, customer service, marketing and distribution, partnerships

Some of the hardest parts of AI-as-a-service became easy. But that doesn't mean it’ll be a walk in the park to make money and stay afloat.

Realize that the sheer number of AI apps popping up rapidly means that there is no competitive moat around most of them. This doesn’t mean that the combination of a great idea, great execution, and grit won’t get you anywhere, but rest assured that you’re probably not missing out on a massive long-term opportunity.

Regardless, you should absolutely be exploring AI to prepare yourself for the future.

A lot has happened in just 2 weeks, and it’s not stopping here.