A client proudly told me last week he rebuilt his entire website in a weekend using AI tools. I celebrated his initiative – that kind of rapid prototyping is exactly what these tools excel at.
But then I had to have the harder conversation.
What works beautifully as a prototype often collapses under real-world conditions. It’s the technological equivalent of building a movie set – looks complete from the front, but peek behind and you’ll find wooden props holding everything up.
The limitation isn’t with AI tools themselves. They’re remarkable at generating functional code quickly. The real issue lies in what they can’t see: how that code needs to be architected for scale, security, and maintainability.
When traffic spikes, when security vulnerabilities emerge, when you need to add new features – that’s when the difference between prototype and production becomes painfully clear. I’ve seen too many leaders face costly rewrites after initial success overwhelmed their hastily-built foundations.
This doesn’t mean abandoning AI for development. Quite the opposite. The most peaceful path forward combines AI’s rapid prototyping capabilities with human expertise in architecture and engineering principles.
Use AI to explore possibilities quickly. Then bring in experienced developers not to start over, but to strengthen what works, refactor what doesn’t, and build the invisible infrastructure that will support your growth.
The companies finding technological peace aren’t choosing between speed and stability – they’re sequencing them correctly.
Christopher Grant
Founder, Nebari Consulting
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Spotted a typo? Consider it a feature not a bug. Now you know I’m not an AI 🤖