For the last decade, if you wanted to build custom software for your business—like a client portal or a bespoke inventory management system—you really only had three choices.

1. Struggle with a messy, existing spreadsheet
2. Hire an in-house developer
3. Pay a premium for an agency to build it for you.

None of these options were great.

If the project was valuable enough, you'd make it happen. If not, it would just sit in the idea backlog.

But over the last few months, a massive shift has occurred. The floor has fallen out of software pricing, and the cost of innovation has plummeted.

AI has Changed the Software Game

We've recently been building a number of custom tools for our customers. When we provide quotes, we sometimes get feedback like, "Hey, I've received quotes that are much larger than this. Why is yours so different?"

The truth is, many are still quoting based on the old, outdated way of doing things.

Most people have heard of AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, or maybe even Grok.

But the real revolution is happening with a new wave of tools that use these large language models to generate code. You may have heard of platforms like Lovable, Replit, or Claude. They are doing for software development what ChatGPT did for content creation.

Think back to that magical moment when you first asked an AI to write a blog post and watched hundreds of words appear in seconds. It’s the same awe-inspiring experience with these coding tools, but instead of words, it’s functional code.

You can literally say, "Build me a to-do list app," and watch it spring to life out of thin air.

From Weeks to Minutes

This new capability allows developers to generate production-level boilerplate code in minutes.

Foundational tasks like setting up databases, user logins, and application layouts are now almost instantaneous. All that initial, time-consuming grunt work is essentially dead.

What used to take months in building the foundational structure of a software application now takes mere minutes. This is the single biggest reason for the dramatic drop in cost.

However, it’s crucial to understand the limitations. Just like using ChatGPT to write a blog post won't make you a great author or win you a literary award, using AI to generate code doesn't make you an expert developer. The AI generates a solid first draft, but the real magic is in the editing and refinement.

The "last mile" of making something truly great—customizing the features, ensuring security, and polishing the user experience—still takes a ton of time and expertise. That’s where skilled developers and agencies come in. They take the AI-generated foundation and transform it into a robust, reliable, and unique application that meets your specific business needs.

The New ROI

Why is this important for you to know about?

Because the business case for getting custom applications built has fundamentally changed. If you're running a business that needs or wants custom software to compete and win—whether it's an inventory fulfillment system, a new API, or an automated internal tool—the ROI equation has shifted dramatically in your favor.

I wouldn't recommend building it entirely yourself, because that's not your area of expertise. But I would strongly recommend you go and speak to an agency that embraces this new technology.

Think about it this way: five years ago, that custom inventory system you wanted might have been quoted at $50,000. Today, because the initial development time has been slashed, you might get a quote for just $10,000.

There's still significant work to be done to make it perfect, and everyone needs to make a living, but the starting point is vastly different.

Many projects that were once marginally profitable or even a net negative on the balance sheet are probably now well into the green.