From Frustration to Fix: AI Lets You Build Your Own Solutions
Stop Waiting for Tools—Create Your Own with AI
A few years ago, you had two choices when software didn’t work the way you wanted. You could send a support ticket and hope for the best, or you could deal with the problem. If you weren’t a developer, there wasn’t much else you could do.
That’s over.
With AI models like DeepSeek-R1 and OpenAI’s o3-mini, fixing problems no longer requires waiting for a company to roll out an update. You can build your own solutions right now.
AI-Generated Plugins
AI can already generate full apps from a simple prompt. The next big shift will be instant browser extensions, automation scripts, and integrations that solve problems in seconds.
Say a website keeps auto-refreshing while you’re typing into a form. Instead of searching for a workaround, you ask AI to generate a Chrome extension that blocks the refresh. You install it immediately. Problem solved.
Or maybe a dashboard you use every day is missing dark mode. Instead of waiting for the developers to add it, you ask AI to generate a quick script that changes the CSS.
You need better export options from a SaaS tool? AI can help you generate a browser extension that adds an "Export to CSV" button.
These aren’t hypothetical. People are already building these solutions. Soon, this will be normal.
Three days ago, I was getting frustrated. Every time I copied code from ChatGPT, I had to go back and reformat it into markdown. Annoying, right? The problem is that ChatGPT sometimes renders markdown instead of giving you the raw markdown format, even when you specifically ask for it.
After doing this for the tenth time in a row, I thought, Why am I fixing this manually when I could just build generate an app to do it for me?
So, I started engineering my prompt to build this chrome plugin. Thirty minutes later, I had the first version of Markdown Clipboard, a Chrome extension that lets you copy website content—code, text, whatever—and instantly format it as markdown. No more weird spacing, missing backticks, or broken formatting.
Right now, it’s in review by the Chrome Web Store. Once it’s approved, anyone dealing with the same problem can use it too.
This is exactly what I’m talking about. Instead of waiting for a fix, you can just make one almost instantly.
From Passive Users to Active Builders
AI models with strong reasoning eliminate the skill gap that kept non-developers from building their own tools. Hiring a developer or spending months learning to code used to be the only way to get these things done. Now, all it takes is a well-phrased request.
Instead of waiting for feature requests to be approved, people will generate their own fixes and share them.
Companies that ignore user complaints might wake up one day to find their customers have already solved the problem—without them.
Why It Matters
Most software problems are small but annoying. They don’t justify hiring a developer, but they add up. AI puts the power back in your hands. You don’t have to rely on a company’s roadmap. You don’t have to keep workarounds in a notes app. You can fix the problem right now.
This also means software development is no longer reserved for people who write code full-time. Anyone who understands their own needs can now build solutions for themselves—and for others.
The internet has always been full of small frustrations. AI is making them easier to fix than ever.
What I’ve Been Up To
Lately, I’ve been building a lot in open source:
I built saas-subscription-helper and usageflow to simplify SaaS payment link integration.
More recently I helped build an open-source response to OpenAI Deep Research: Tweet
My next open-source goals:
Give LLMs access to keyword data so AI-powered SEO optimization actually uses real data.
Build an orchestration hub for AI agents, so they can talk to each other while keeping context.
More sales-driven open-source tools: email sequences, drip campaigns, Twitter/LinkedIn automation. Every time I need one of these, it's another $50/month added to my startup monthly budget. It’s becoming expensive!
I’m also exploring Firecrawl—their new extract feature makes it easy to scrape websites using natural language. Lots of potential there.
If you haven’t noticed, I have an AI channel: Code with Rich. I post weekly content on building with AI. Subscribe if that’s your thing.
If you want to get behind the scene and see what I’m building you can join SaaSpreneur Academy where I teach people how to build with AI.
Cheers!
Learn it to make it!