Hey friends - I've become increasingly frustrated with how the marketplace for AI apps is evolving. I'm writing this post to share my views, see if you agree the problem exists and get your ideas on what we could do about it.
Currently, I'm paying for a few AI tools - ChatGPT, Mid journey, Jenni, Tome and Elevenlabs to name a few. I'm using each one of these daily and I've been a pro user on some of them since they launched. I've also created a few interesting AI agents using OpenAI's API to help me implement my trading strategies.
Everyday, I see more and more AI startups being created. Many of them are trying to tackle the same use cases as existing companies but do a better job (higher quality, cheaper). Often, I feel the urge to see if any of these are better. There are many things I dislike about my current toolkit and I often see others solving it better.
In reality, I can't really try any new ones because I don't cant spend $200 more a month on the new tools. Each one is trying to push me into some sort of 3-month or 1-year subscription. When they do offer a free tier, its often difficult to see the full capability of the AI to see if its actually worth the switch.
Even if I do switch, I have to re-learn a brand new interface. More importantly, I end up losing many months of work that I've already built up my current platforms. The lock-in is obviously great for the big companies but leaves me feeling frustrated and helpless as a consumer.
There is also no centralized, up-to-date place where we can see reviews, ratings or work samples from AI agents / tools. I have to just take each company's marketing page at face value and just trust them. There are a few directories for AI tools that exist, but there is no way I can trust those: the ratings are gamed and the listings are mostly sponsored - its not really an app store ecosystem as much as a cost-per-click business.
This really reminds of the situation with taxis before Uber or online contracting before UpWork. Scams abound, extremely high switching costs and consumers having no clue if I'm stuck at a local minimum. I'm sure the inefficiency exists on the supply side too - as a novice AI builder, I'd love to share and monetize my stock analysis bots but I don't want to have to found an AI company, raise $$, build an app etc. to do it.
There is clearly something missing here but I don't know exactly what it is. I think its important we start considering these questions:
Have any of you faced these problems? How are you getting around then?
Are there any solutions / ideas you see emerging out there? What are key features or missing pieces?
What does the future of AI work look like according to you?
My hope is to start a discussion to help us work towards a possible solution. I'll even build if we decide its necessary.
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