Why should your product still exist?

“As agents get more capable, why should your product still exist?”

Jaclyn Konzelmann asked that at The AI Conference last week. It's a question anyone building software product needs to be grappling with right now.

Her example was Blender - a tool she'd never used and hadn't had any intention to learn - I made a similar example recently of Hubspot for myself.

Because of the capability of her agents, she was able to create an animation that she wouldn't have otherwise. Blender gained a user as a result.

Blender is usually a pretty expert tool. Honestly, one I've tinked with and shied away from as something I didn't have the patience to learn. But the complexity of operation was completely mitigated by the LLM she used, and now that tool can reach a much wider audience.

On the other hand, it puts some pressure on us as builders. If a customer's agent can do the task, choose another tool, or just build a solution suitable to the task - what do they need our product for?

The floor for a product utility is going to continue to rise. Best to make sure you're continuing to ask that question as a part of your development journey.