For the past two years, the consensus in tech has been clear: as AI makes software development cheap, attention becomes the ultimate currency. The logic followed that we would see an army of identical services - the 47,853rd Todo list, the 100th AI wearable, the millionth water tracker. In this sea of sameness, marketing, PR, and viral positioning were supposed to be the "rock stars" of the new economy, fighting for the high-priced eyeballs of a saturated market.
But there is a fatal flaw in this logic.
We assumed users would still be "users" - passive consumers looking for a product in an App Store. What if the democratization of development goes so far that the concept of a "target audience" disappears because everyone just builds their own tools?
The "Build vs. Buy" Threshold
In the old world, we paid for software because the cost of building it was astronomical. If a financial management tool costs $200 a year, you pay it because building a custom alternative would take weeks of coding, debugging, and thousands of dollars in labor. The $200 is "cheap" compared to the effort.
However, as tools like Cursor, Windsurf, and OpenAI’s Codex drive the cost of creation toward zero, that threshold shifts.
- A support bot for $25/year? You’ll probably still pay for the convenience.
- A bookkeeping service that wants $500 to add extra accounts? Suddenly, spending 30 minutes with an AI to generate a custom Python script and a basic UI seems like a rational financial move.
When "Good Enough" is Better Than "Professional"
The marketing industry relies on the "Polish Factor." Companies spend millions on UI/UX, branding, logos, and testimonials to convince you their tool is the best.
But a personal, AI-generated service doesn't need a logo. It doesn't need a landing page with a catchy video. It doesn't need to be secure for 10,000 users - it just needs to work for one. When a user creates their own tool, they bypass the entire marketing funnel:
- No Search: They don't look for reviews.
- No Ads: They don't click on banners.
- No Churn: If they stop using it, there’s no "customer success" team trying to win them back. They just stop.
In this scenario, marketing doesn't just get more expensive - it becomes irrelevant for a huge swath of utility-based software.
5 Fast Facts: The Rise of the "Sovereign Developer"
- The 85% Code Shift: As seen in recent reports, AI can now handle up to 85% of the boilerplate code for an app, leaving only the logic - which is exactly what a user knows best for their own needs.
- The "Unbundling" of SaaS: We are seeing a trend toward "micro-apps" - single-purpose scripts that replace bloated $50/month SaaS subscriptions.
- API Accessibility: With platforms like Replit and Vercel, deploying a custom-made tool has gone from a "weekend project" to a "ten-minute task."
- The Death of Feature Creep: Public apps are forced to add features to justify their price. Personal apps are perfectly lean, containing only what the user actually uses.
- Token Deflation: The cost of the "intelligence" required to build these apps is dropping by roughly 50% every 12 months, making "self-building" cheaper every year.
Analysis: The Survival of the "High-Bar" Product
If simple utility apps are built by the users themselves, what stays in the market? Only products that are impossible to self-replicate.
- Networks: You can build your own messenger, but you can’t build your own 2 billion users (WhatsApp/Instagram).
- Hardware Integration: You can’t "prompt" an iPhone into existence yet.
- Deep Tech: High-level medical diagnostics or complex legal engines still require proprietary data that a home user doesn't have.
For the rest - the trackers, the organizers, the simple calculators - the era of the "Customer" is ending. The era of the "Creator-User" is beginning. Marketing isn't going to save these businesses; they are simply going to vanish into the hands of the people who used to buy them.
Also read:
- The Strengths and Limitations of AI Coding Agents: Insights from Codex and Beyond
- The 85% Paradigm: How 4 Engineers Built Sora for Android in Just 4 Weeks
- The "Series A Crunch" of 2025: Why Mid-Stage Startups are Failing at Record Rates
Author: Slava Vasipenok
Founder and CEO of QUASA (quasa.io) - Daily insights on Web3, AI, Crypto, and Freelance. Stay updated on finance, technology trends, and creator tools - with sources and real value.
Innovative entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in IT, fintech, and blockchain. Specializes in decentralized solutions for freelancing, helping to overcome the barriers of traditional finance, especially in developing regions.
