The phrase “there’s an app for that” has been a global catchphrase since the early days of the iPhone. But it wasn’t truly global. In Zimbabwe (and much of Africa) there are still many things we wish someone built an app for.
Liker a service review platform where construction people, mechanics etc… are reviewed so good businesses get more business. Like an app to help you find accommodation without paying “finder’s fees” to predatory agents. Better agritech, functional local e-commerce, and health apps that are locally relevant.
For the first time, that’s changing. it’s starting to truly feel like imagination is going to be the limitation.
AI tools have gotten so good that an ordinary person, armed with an idea, some English, an internet connection, and a $20/month AI subscription (you have to pay for the really good stuff), can build and launch an app.
Indeed, not everyone in Zimbabwe has those things. I’m always reminded that many families struggle to raise $30 for school fees a term. But for those that have them, the barrier was never funding alone. It was finding a good software developer.
The good ones(the devs who understood why you were building something, not just the code) were few, expensive, and extremely busy.Engineers like Gedion Moyo, who just built an entire AI-native news platform in a day. Or Rufaro Madamombe, who built out our whole Techzim Airtime system, helping us become a serious competitor in a new industry within months.
The affordable devs usually still had a lot of learning to do, mostly about business, people, about why things get built. So you’d spend months together, burning cash, learning each other, and often shipping bad products. And if you were unlucky a ruined relationship between 2 otherwise good people.
AI is becoming really good at at what those top devs did. It’s not quite there yet, but for the first time you can find it’s picking up the why of your product. It now pushes with “No, you don’t want to do that” where the older less capable AI (and some of the free AI today) would just say “You’re absolutely right, let’s go!” it asks clarifying questions. And increasingly it’s able to bring up something you’d have never thought to consider. It is truly amazing what these things can do now.
But here’s the thing: AI hasn’t made the Gedions and Rufaros obsolete. It’s done the opposite. The top devs were good, not because they could write code, but because they could imagine the product with you. The could ask the right questions, they could communicate really well, they were disciplined about what features to say Yes to and those to say No to. Especially the Nos. They were extremely hard working members of teams that needed to ship a product on time. In short, it wasn’t the technical stuff that made them stand out, it was the human stuff. And in the abundance of technical ability one could argue the human stuff is even more valuable now.
It’s exiting times and it’s frightening at the same time. Exciting because imagination is becoming the main bottleneck, not technical skill.
Frightening because it’s a lot of change, all at once, for everyone. The kind of change that makes you sad every time you see your child on their homework.