What do you think of the new Ai powered design on bubble and do you think that AI will impact no code freelancers / agencies in a negative way or even replace them eventually
As long as clients wonât be able to elicit requirements and the problem to solve themselves, there will always be work for (senior) developers.
Agree with @redvivi. AI powered design (which I already dabble with on Bubble) will minimize the tedious uncreative tasks letting great developers focus on what they are great at.
Unlike the Bubble Developer Certificate, AI Design will (hopefully) separate the chaff from the wheat making it a lot easier for stars to stand out.
Being able to distinguish between great and not-so-great no-code developers is very difficult (any novice can make a good looking site with bells and whistles in no time) and hurts no-code platforms reputation.
Do you know what is called someone who is able to provide accurate instructions for a computer to follow? A programmer. This will never change.
There will always be programmers and non-programmers. There will always be work for programmers being paid by non-programmers.
Just keep track of the tool being used in the current decade and you will be fine.
Look into the past history of programming if you want to know the future of it.
History never repeats itself, but it always rhymes.
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Yes. Freelancers will suffer more than agencies. The game will become one of marketing and a need to have a large client funnel as the time to develop will be even more reducedâŚso if an app used to take on a NoCode platform 100 hours, it will likely be reduced dramatically, which means instead of needing one client every 100 hours, you will need one client maybe every 50 hours.
Since each client app will take less time, the cost (ie: profit) will be less for each client. This makes the task of acquiring new clients paramount to the success of the agency.
Overall, large agencies may benefit while smaller agencies and freelancers will likely start to die out.
Of course, the flip side is that lower costs means more clients available, since economics. If you can create a solid client funnel and have an efficient process, you may do well.
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This 100%
AI is insanely powerful, but the average person still doesnât know database design or best workflow practices. Sure they can create webpages and in the future, workflows to go along with it but anything outside of that I would imagine is a giant question mark to those whoâve never developed anything regularly.
I think it will be a neat tool to help generate pages and simple workflows, but anything complex will still require some development and basic computer science knowledge.
Until AI can suggest good database design and best workflow practice I suppose.
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I think there are unrealistic expectations regarding âAIâ here, at least in its current form.
LLM will generate solutions from existing problems that have already been solved, and quicker than humans.
So AI will accelerate speed of delivery for commons (or close to) use-cases at a lower costs.
Like any maturing industry, it means that the mid- and bottom tier of the freelancers/developers will be impacted.
The top tier (specialists/real talents) will always stay to find solutions to unsolved problems, leaving the mundane tasks to AI, which is not different than outsourcing today to overseas coding farm.
Personally, I am not worried at all and even glad to use my skills to spend more time understanding my clientsâ business to create new and elegant solutions instead of spewing out low-value code/workflows all day long.
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exactlyâŚit speeds things up, thus reducing overall the time to complete an app, so in theory the cost to produce an app and the related profit (not margin but as a whole), so causes a need to increase client acquisition focus and enlarging the client funnel.
This does not necessarily put the specialists or real talents at a competitive edge, rather, it puts marketing talents at a competitive edge as they will be more capable of creating solid client funnels.
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Maybe Iâm giving too much credit to people, but I would think that when it comes to complex development and sophisticated algorithms, the impact of marketing will be limited as performance will be paramount. I donât think top oral surgeons rely too heavily on marketing whereas marketing may make or break a dentist.
Maybe not once they have been publicly recognized as such, or maybe not when they work at a hospital that already has the reputation and does the marketing work for themâŚbut, of course, this is a sort of chicken and egg type of situation. What comes first; the oral surgeon becoming known as the top oral surgeon or a way to market the oral surgeons services in such a way as to bring in the patients who then can give the accolades that would lead to the designation of âtop oral surgeonâ?
Of course, there may be trade bodies that could make those designations and give a public recognition of âtop oral surgeonâ, but for the most part those bodies are just marketing campaigns. Very often, they will reach out to an entity to say âyou have been nominatedâ and then ask you to pay a fee to utilize that nomination and have it promoted via the trade bodies content.
So, in terms of Bubble developers, what sort of trade body exists to provide those public accolades to designate a particular developer or group of developers as âtop tierâ?
And how does a particular Bubble developer become known for providing the best in class regarding complex development and sophisticated algorithms? They will need to showcase their work publicly (ie: marketing). How does a particular Bubble developer get a potential new client to discuss their project needs in order for the developer to showcase to a potential new client that the developer has specialized skills that set them apart; it is through marketing. Of course, word of mouth is the best marketing, so once the developer has some satisfied clients will to spread the word for them, they themselves no longer need to do too much marketing on their own, and can rely on past clients to do the marketing for them.
It doesnât matter what industry you are in, be it a doctor, a chef, a Bubble developer or a small AirBNB in Vermont, you need to bring attention to your services in order to get people to use your services in order for your services to become known as better than othersâŚthen once it is known that the service is better than others, there needs to be a continued marketing campaign to promote the fact that the service is better than others.
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None. Youâre right. Thatâs the primary reason I am so passionate about the current Bubble Developer certification: itâs a squandered opportunity to actually start distinguishing developers.
Quantity over Quality
It seems Bubble's primary objective is to show the hockey stick growth to placate its VCs - hence- the copious amount of features being released without proper vetting;
- the lack of basic requirements for plugins to be approved (so thet the numbers of new plugins can be bloated);
- 98%+ passage rate for Bubble developer certification (totally made up number; just what I assume based on the nature of the exam); and
- ignoring security oversights because they donât place high enough on the Ideaboard.
Hopefully someone will realize that sustainable growth is more important (as VCs, in todayâs climate, are prioritizing more than ever), and the tinkerers and hobbyists arenât going to be driving the sustainable growth; itâs going to come from enterprise-level companies and successful startups.
Attracting the Big Guys
Based on a handful of conversations I've had, the two biggest hurdles to bigger companies dipping their toes into the no-code water are security issues and evaluating/finding great talent. It's in Bubble's interests to remove those blockers so they can usher in a whole untapped demo of customers; hopefully they will get after this ASAP because if not them, then it will likely be someone else...They will be easy to identify - that will be the only ones left after AI takeover 
.
More seriously, certification isnât the golden bullet and doesnât deserve such passion.
Letâs say I have a cutting-edge technical level but no skills whatsoever at defining and listen to clients - you will be a poor professional.
Similarly, an oral surgeon with a plethora of academics degree doesnât mean you will get quality surgery - actually quite the opposite, as he/she prefers to be the head in the books rather than in his/her patientsâ mouths.
Let me tell you the truth: the âtop tierâ will be the ones lasting over time, having references, a reputation and a solid portfolio.
So, at the end, like in the business world, you will have to do your own research based on those elements to qualify your suppliers.
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Not the golden bullet, but it can be a starting point. And as you refer to head in the books, it shouldnât be a theoretical or technical exam but an assessment of the ability to understand and execute within Bubble.
Obviously, oneâs inability to define client needs will mean they arenât a good dev. Those soft skills are vetted just by scoping communications.
The caveat is that Bubbleâs platform essentially gives posers a toolkit to persuade peopleâincluding themselvesâthat they are capable of creating sophisticated, functional apps.
Everyone talkin about AI and Iâm over here struggling with my workflows operating out of order⌠
sigh Hereâs to hoping Bubble AI will be like âHey, you want this to run sequentially? I re-did the functions for you⌠Oh and I optimized 3 of your calls to use 25% of the WUâs⌠and hey, no errors!! Oh⌠and hereâs that beer you orderedâ. 
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I would rather say it reduces the clutter, but wonât qualify it as a start to make an educated choice.
In my example, I go beyond theory and wasnât referring to pure technical knowledge when I refered to âbooksâ. Even if the assessment may contain some practice, if you have no inter-personal skills or capacity to understand your clientsâ issue or how this problem affects his business, you are toasted.
And thatâs why âmarketingâ wonât be the pinnacle of the success.
Speaking for myself, I hardly do marketing. I rather make sure that I deliver quality and provide qualified solutions to my users or clients at each and every steps, then the business follows.
Clients wonât be fooled by a lipstick on a pig on the long run.
There has been NoCode development for enterprise level clients for years, even before Bubble hit main stream. Mostly unheard of because their goals were not to democratize development, but instead provide lower cost development to enterprises.
Sustainable growth can come from various ways, enterprise clients can contribute to that, but a lot of other ways that line up with Bubble core objectives can as well.
But of course the main driver for sustainable growth will be based on successful startups. Not that many ever intend to stay on Bubble after gaining traction, so the features required to keep them on Bubble are necessary.
Everything you say is true about certification program and the approach taken thus far in growth. But I donât think bubble needs to target enterprise until they have all the features to alleviate concerns of enterprise clients.
But marketing is happening as youâd never have clients follow if not. What you describe is word of mouth marketing. Do well by a client and they recommend you and more clients follow.
I agree. My clients love the fact I have a background in business and education. I can explain complex issues in an easy to understand manner (education) and I can understand impacts on their business and provide ideas they had yet to think of (business); and since Iâm not just technically minded, Iâm able to understand things with one communication rather than back and forth.
But no matter what approach you take, you are marketing your services. Some may get dressed up as a pig in lipstick, some may hang certifications on the wall, some may just get the job done well. But, whichever way clients are acquired today, youâll need to double your efforts when AI is introduced. Itâs a fact that AI will speed up development. If you know and accept this fact youâll understand the implications, which is, youâre client apps will take less time to build, so less billable hours which equals less income per client project which requires an increase in client projects to maintain a current income level once AI is introduced.
If you charge $100 an hour and have average of 100 hours per client project, you make $10,000 per project. To earn $100,000 a year you need 10 client projects.
If you charge $100 an hour and have an average of 50 hours per client project, you make $5,000 per project. To earn $100,000 a year you need 20 client projects.
How do you double the number of client projects coming your way without increasing your efforts in marketing your services in any method you choose?
For word of mouth itâs easy, which is why word of mouth marketing is the best form of marketingâŚyou do nothing other than doubling the number of clients you have.
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I agree in macro-economics terms regarding the market for mundane development activities.
I disagree for specific activities, because the assumptions taken here are that top tier developers will be competing with activities that can be performed by AI, therefore reducing the billable value per hour and/or the volume.
Specialists wonât suffer this effect as they have skills and knowledge to address unsolved problems (thatâs what you hire specialists for) which therefore canât and wonât be replaced by AI -LLM.
I could even argue that specialists I described, who master both standard coding and no-code platforms and how to make both work together, will even get more rare, hence costs more, because the new generations of resources coming in IT get less and less educated in true computer science, which will remain the basis on how performant solutions are being built from.
So no, top tier developerâs efforts to get the same income wonât double for sure.
And how are top tier developers getting recognition as a top tier developer?