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Ask HN: Where are the AI-driven profits or promotions?

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Re: Ask HN: Where are the AI-driven profits or promotions?

#11

Post by sachinaag »

Traubenfuchs wrote: post #9
molteanu wrote: post #8

At my work, we've been using AI since its beginnings. The company offers free subscriptions to every person, sw dev, qa, marketing, anyone. I'd say 9/10 people are using and writing code with it. I've seen no actual improvement in the development speed of our product. Same pace. Same endless discussions. Same meetings. It hasn't changed the pace nor it has lead to an explosion of ideas, implementations or discussions…

We are currently in the „AI experimentation phase“, by 2026, latest, we will be a first class AI first company -the CPTO said so. Teams are ranked by AI usage now, making me ask claude code how it slept every morning. You better brace yourself, because as such a company we will run circles around you.

[dead]

Re: Ask HN: Where are the AI-driven profits or promotions?

#12

Post by molteanu »

ivape wrote: post #5

GPT 3.5 was only released in late 2022. It really hasn’t even been a full three years. We’re still discovering what we even want to do with this stuff. Shocking when you say it out loud, it hasn’t even been three years . Let the kid grow up a bit.

Even more reason to ask the question, then. Not even three years but we know it leads to x% productivity increases, happy teams, etc, etc. We know the buzzwords.

If a new, wonder drug or food or medicinal plant would appear on the radar with claims of "it increases your life expectancy by x years, your happiness and well-being by y amounts, etc, etc" would you say that those claims are based on fact or are just marketing?

Re: Ask HN: Where are the AI-driven profits or promotions?

#13

Post by stevage »

Traubenfuchs wrote: post #10

I got one anecdote: My freelancing college friend said he started extensively vibe coding worst-quality slop that „just works“, making customers happy with unfixable slop, instead manually writing good or best practice stuff. He said there are many projects where he does not code at all anymore. I need to get back to him and ask him why he isn‘t making more money than before…

So I have picked up one project where I'm rewriting a codebase vibe-coded by the non-technical founders.

It'll be interesting to see if that becomes a trend. Just what are people supposed to do with vibe coded codebases...

Re: Ask HN: Where are the AI-driven profits or promotions?

#14

Post by molteanu »

stevage wrote: post #13
Traubenfuchs wrote: post #10

I got one anecdote: My freelancing college friend said he started extensively vibe coding worst-quality slop that „just works“, making customers happy with unfixable slop, instead manually writing good or best practice stuff. He said there are many projects where he does not code at all anymore. I need to get back to him and ask him why he isn‘t making more money than before…

So I have picked up one project where I'm rewriting a codebase vibe-coded by the non-technical founders. It'll be interesting to see if that becomes a trend. Just what are people supposed to do with vibe coded codebases...

What's the reason behind them abandoning the project, so to speak? Why didn't they continue developing it themselves?

Re: Ask HN: Where are the AI-driven profits or promotions?

#15

Post by rrgok »

mojomark wrote: post #3

Where are the e-mail-driven profits? I use ChatGPT every day, to make myself more efficient (I get things done more quickly and with higher quality). Nobody really knows I use it.

What do you use for, if I may know (coding, design, testing...)?

Re: Ask HN: Where are the AI-driven profits or promotions?

#16

Post by gbalduzzi »

molteanu wrote: post #14
stevage wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I have picked up one project where I'm rewriting a codebase vibe-coded by the non-technical founders. It'll be interesting to see if that becomes a trend. Just what are people supposed to do with vibe coded codebases...

What's the reason behind them abandoning the project, so to speak? Why didn't they continue developing it themselves?

I think that fast prototyping followed by a rewrite (in case the prototype confirmed the idea works) is the best use case for vibe coding.

A product person can quickly validate an idea and, once the project is a bit more concrete you can bring in the engineering team and start caring about security, maintenability, scaling and so. A rewrite is almost always the best thing, you can start with a solid foundation instead of spaghetti vibe coded stuff

Re: Ask HN: Where are the AI-driven profits or promotions?

#17

Post by dwroberts »

muzani wrote: post #6

There's plenty of stories like this: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/15/y-combinator-startups-are-fa... The target for a great startup was 7% growth week-on-week, and now it's 10%. It means back then if you were making $1k/week in Jan 1, 2024, you'd expect to make $33k/week a year later. But thanks to AI, the standard is closer to $142k/week. Back then, it was normal to raise $75k or so to build a prototype, now you can…

The linked story is “YC says YC companies growing faster because of AI”

The story doesn’t state much about source but is it literally just an editorialised press release?

Re: Ask HN: Where are the AI-driven profits or promotions?

#18

Post by stevage »

molteanu wrote: post #14
stevage wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I have picked up one project where I'm rewriting a codebase vibe-coded by the non-technical founders. It'll be interesting to see if that becomes a trend. Just what are people supposed to do with vibe coded codebases...

What's the reason behind them abandoning the project, so to speak? Why didn't they continue developing it themselves?

Two problems:

- they started to realise they didn't have some of the domain knowledge (I specialise in maps/GIS), so couldn't steer it effectively

- they said that the changes it made started to become unstable: while making one change, it would break other things. It got harder and harder to make progress.

I suspect the second problem wouldn't happen as soon (or maybe not at all) with an experienced dev running the process.

Re: Ask HN: Where are the AI-driven profits or promotions?

#19

Post by exe34 »

Traubenfuchs wrote: post #9
molteanu wrote: post #8

At my work, we've been using AI since its beginnings. The company offers free subscriptions to every person, sw dev, qa, marketing, anyone. I'd say 9/10 people are using and writing code with it. I've seen no actual improvement in the development speed of our product. Same pace. Same endless discussions. Same meetings. It hasn't changed the pace nor it has lead to an explosion of ideas, implementations or discussions…

We are currently in the „AI experimentation phase“, by 2026, latest, we will be a first class AI first company -the CPTO said so. Teams are ranked by AI usage now, making me ask claude code how it slept every morning. You better brace yourself, because as such a company we will run circles around you.

> we will run circles around you

Chasing a tail that seems to remain just slightly out of reach!

Re: Ask HN: Where are the AI-driven profits or promotions?

#20

Post by emseetech »

molteanu wrote: post #8

At my work, we've been using AI since its beginnings. The company offers free subscriptions to every person, sw dev, qa, marketing, anyone. I'd say 9/10 people are using and writing code with it. I've seen no actual improvement in the development speed of our product. Same pace. Same endless discussions. Same meetings. It hasn't changed the pace nor it has lead to an explosion of ideas, implementations or discussions…

AI may expand the effectiveness of engineers, especially experienced ones, without doing much for efficiency or velocity.

If that’s the case the industry hasn’t considered how it will adapt to that. It’s not even in the conversation.

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