I wonder if it will have a similar pattern of creating a mess as the app starts to get uptake and the SME can't scale their attention to be an app owner, as well as an SME at the same time.
Also makes me think that an llm-developed-app-friendly shared datastore would be a useful thing to have
While taking ownership of AI slop is not an option for me, I do want to avoid shadow IT.
Might be a moon shot .. could sharing a prompt template with git access to colleagues be a way to enforce it ?
Excel used to be, and probably still is, the primary competitor to enterprise-developed apps - a lot of businesses run on it. But, that was a locally deployed phenomenon, with an added ability to deploy it somewhere else by simply emailing the workbook to someone else.
In your organization, how do your managers turn their code into working software?
Some users with privileged access can run their app locally in cli or browser, else most softwares we work with can use custom modules in specific languages (html, css, js, dax, vb.net, perl, python, sql, etc.). Ownership and trust must be established, for example only the commercial manager has access to deploy modules to CRM. They usually are constrained to read access, unless they are informed engineering managers.
Ideally I would share pipelines to deploy static pages, or a predefined dynamic architecture. I'm wary the security risks are too great, I don't trust they would have enough time / interest to become autonomous in unconstrained environments so I didn't pursue the idea, maybe I could for static pages, or in isolated networks ..
I have been empowered to be the quick and dirty build guy for small local apps instead of fighting for engineering resources. Now our managers regularly hit me up on slack with small little items that if built, could increase productivity for their teams. I love it. I'm mostly building systems that work with google workspace (docs/sheets/forms/email). So its a lot of little appscripts, or single html file apps made available via google sites. Most of our operations staff dont have all the required underlying expertise to quickly pull this kind of thing off, and are not interested in strengthening those talents. It has allowed me to shine bright while also providing much needed relief to many teams.
Although if they were HTML/JS/CSS with no dependencies you could argue that might be quite bullet proof since browsers have an unmatched record of backward compatibility.
Also I believe the value is in the output, not the app itself. ROI of a 1 hour AI slop should™ be attained before it rots and they can just spun up a new one.
I might be hopeful and a bit selfish here, I expect my colleagues to own their toolbox.
i don't think its going to be a silver bullet, but it doesn't need to be. niche, well understood problems with simple tooling needs are the best ones to start with.
https://culturecompiled.com/p/things-are-getting-awkward-for...