TL;DR;
The hype around "AI agents" that can supposedly do everything in one go has started to wear off. Builders are realizing that true progress doesn’t come from one-click magic but from smarter process changes. At our company, an agent means a focused, single-purpose program that can handle more messy real-world conditions than a normal deterministic app. We’ve flipped how we build: start with flow and wireframes, let AI mock the front, then move to schema and backend. It’s faster, cleaner, and uses fewer people — but AI still can’t clean data or create new models. It only predicts the next step.
Introduction
There’s been too much noise around agents that promise to plan, design, and build everything. Most of those systems don’t actually plan — they just predict. The results can look impressive but fall apart once you peek under the hood.
Our team stopped chasing that illusion. Instead, we began changing how we approach building itself. The biggest shift isn’t in what AI can do, but in how we fit it into the flow.
What Others Are Saying
Across the web, people are noticing the same trend — the "AI builds your entire app" bubble is deflating.
Lovable’s fall from hype: According to Is Lovable Dying? (news.abnasia.org), Lovable’s traffic dropped from 35.4 million in June to 19.1 million in September — almost half gone in three months. Replit and Bolt also saw drops. The post explains why:
- The spring hype wave brought in non-developers who left once the novelty wore off.
- Power users used too much compute, forcing the platforms to throttle performance and raise prices.
- Free credits and discounts disappeared as the companies tried to monetize their user base.
- Developers shifted to integrated AI coding tools inside their IDEs (like Copilot or Cursor), which are easier to stick with long term.
The new phase: As Vibe Coding Fades, Woz Offers Production-Ready Alternative (The New Stack) describes how a new startup, Woz, is building "production-ready" apps using prebuilt components plus human oversight. The founders say tools like Lovable or Bolt were never meant for real products — they were good at quick demos but produced messy, unmaintainable code. Woz’s approach is part automation, part real engineers reviewing every build. In short, the market is cooling on instant-app promises and moving toward systems that combine AI speed with actual software discipline.
What We Think Is the Future
For us, "agent" doesn’t mean a digital superhuman — it means a small, focused worker that can cover edge cases better than a normal program.
Our build process changed completely:
- We used to start with architecture, schema, APIs, and then front-end.
- Now, we begin with wireframes and have AI mock up designs to test flow and clarity.
- Once everyone agrees on the direction, we lock the schema and backend.
This reversal saves time. Front-ends are cheap to redo, and AI can help us visualize faster than any manual process. We no longer overthink from the start — we iterate first, think deeply at scale.
With this approach, small teams can accomplish more. AI accelerates the early loops, leaving people free to focus on logic, structure, and scale.
That said, AI still hits walls. It’s bad at cleaning data, structuring chaos, or forming new model weights. It repeats patterns — it doesn’t reason. Knowing that boundary helps us use it where it truly fits.
Take Away
The agent boom promised shortcuts that never really worked. But from that failure, a smarter model is taking shape.
AI can’t think, but it can help you move faster toward thinking moments. It’s better as a fast assistant than as an architect. The key is knowing when to let it lead and when to step in.
We’ve learned to stop asking AI to build our systems — and start using it to refine them. That’s where the real speed lies.
