In 2024, the rise of AI programming is like the assembly line production of the 20th century. It is compressing development costs, enhancing efficiency, and reshaping processes at an astonishing speed. Software customizers are facing a brutal elimination race.
1. Programming used to be an “art,” but now it has become a “tool.” In the traditional concept, software development is a high-threshold “art.” Programmers who have undergone years of training realize the creation of a system from scratch through strict logic and superb technology. The arrival of AI has changed all this. In the past, enterprises needed a team to develop a system for several months. Now, they only need to tell AI tools their requirements, and it can complete most of the work in a short time. Programmers are more like partners of AI, providing input and guiding directions.
A fintech startup held a software competition in 2023. One team was composed of traditional programmers and strictly followed the software development life cycle. The other team only relied on AI tools and was responsible by two newcomers with a little understanding of financial business. As a result, the AI team not only completed the task three days in advance but also made the customer more satisfied. Even the CEO of Google, a big company, said that Google is using a large amount of AI in the products it is developing. 25% of programming work has been handed over to AI, and this proportion will increase in the future.
2. AI has a significant impact on traditional software customizers. In the past, customers paid high fees for custom software because they needed personalized and professional solutions. After the rise of low-code platforms and AI programming tools, customers can complete most of their needs through AI by spending only 10%-20% of their original budget. This has caused many small and medium-sized software customizers to lose their customer base on which they rely for survival. AI programming can not only build software but also debug, optimize, and even predict user needs with historical data, breaking the professional barriers of traditional developers.
Just like the changes in the furniture industry. In the past, furniture was custom-made, expensive, and had a long delivery cycle. The model of IKEA has disrupted the industry through modular design and efficient production. In the field of software development, AI makes “standardized modules” within reach, and “purely handcrafted” customizers lose most of the market.
3. This does not mean that software customizers have no way out. Although AI is good at improving efficiency, it is difficult to conquer complex industry systems. For example, for large enterprise ERP systems and multinational company financial management platforms, customizers still need to conduct in-depth business logic sorting and integration. In highly sensitive fields such as healthcare and aviation, data privacy and security requirements are extremely high, and currently, AI is difficult to completely replace the professional judgment of human developers.
After seeing the trend of AI’s rise, a low-code supplier shifted its business focus to complex enterprise-level projects, especially in response to the independent and controllable requirements of central and state-owned enterprises. By assembling an industry expert team, it helps large manufacturing enterprises develop large platforms that integrate production, logistics, and sales, improve customer operational efficiency, and bring considerable long-term maintenance income. They gave up the low-end market and found high-value fields.
4. Many leading customizers are beginning to change their thinking. They no longer see AI as a threat but incorporate it into their toolboxes. By integrating AI tools into the development process, they provide faster and more efficient services. For example, some companies use AI to automatically generate code drafts and then have senior developers optimize them. This “human-machine collaboration” model doubles work efficiency and maintains leading service quality.
After a company focusing on retail industry solutions introduced AI, the development cycle was shortened. They used the saved time to provide customers with more customized function suggestions and establish differentiated competitive advantages. In the future software development market will polarize. Large technology companies will build “development platforms” with AI technology and ecological resources, and small customizers will turn to deeply vertical fields to provide high-value-added solutions. Low-end development enterprises will be eliminated.
5. AI programming is one of the most disruptive forces. For software customizers, it is both a threat and an opportunity. Only by giving up the old model and embracing new tools can we find a way to survive in the transformation. This is a survival-of-the-fittest competition. Enterprises that can quickly adjust their postures and adapt to environmental changes will occupy a place in the future market pattern. Those who are unwilling to change will be eliminated.
