Small Business, Big AI: Rethinking possibilities

What if you could create your owns small business software with AI — bypassing the low-cost, low-quality hassle of freelance fixes?

The past few weeks, the AI enthusiasts’ landscape has been buzzing with a new term: “Vibe Coding.” Although some claim that tech developers are using it across the board, I would argue that the term makes better sense for non-developers since developers are using different array tools to increase their productivity — just saying.

This form of coding has been made available by a number of tools like Replit and Bolt in specific. With these tools, users can build working apps for web and mobile using natural language, debug them with the integrated AI, and deploy and launch them within hours!

What fascinates me is thinking about those digital savvy millennials — or even Gen Xers my age — and how empowering this type of coding can be. It is especially valuable for small business owners trying to digitally transform their business while continuously struggling with the monthly or yearly fees of SaaS tools needed to digitize operations, as well as the intense feature sets of some tools that they honestly don’t need from either a functionality or complexity standpoint.

Here comes “Vibe-Coding,” where you can type in your requirements, priorities, and research to focus on building exactly what you need right now to escape the SaaS maze with its tiered pricing plans and limitations. On top of that, add your own spices and keep your data intact until — hopefully soon — you grow your business enough to hire an internal or external team to upscale your creations!

I’m not talking about accounting software — maybe light CRM instead; I’m not referring to ERP systems, but perhaps light HR or simple supplier management; I’m not discussing highly engaging customer experiences, but maybe a simple loyalty program — the list goes on.

For years, small businesses have had to deal with lower-market software shops locally and elsewhere, as well as freelance developers who disappear after the first few payments — the stories I keep hearing after 20 years still make me cringe. If bad software had a physical form, we’d be swimming all around it by now.

If the term — good as gold — made any sense before, today it explodes in directions that were hard to imagine three springs ago.

And if your experiments feel too risky to deploy and launch, use each one to demo your dream tool to whomever you believe might do it better than those AI vibe tools, all while boosting your chances of success.

For any small business owner under 30, this is how tech should work from day one. Ultimately, this fresh approach lets you craft your digital strategy on your terms — without being weighed down by costly, overly complex software in your early days.

Small Business, Big AI: Rethinking possibilities was originally published in Springing Forward on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.