A few days ago, a designer friend showed me a small app he built entirely on his own using AI tools.
From product design and UI to backend logic, he did everything himself—and he can’t write a single line of code.
I asked how long it took. He said, “One weekend.”
That made me realize something:
In 2026, the barrier to building products is undergoing a fundamental shift.
When AI can write code, create designs, and draft copy, “ability to execute” is no longer the bottleneck.
What’s truly scarce is something else: ideas.
01 AI: Your “Technical Co-Founder”
In the past, turning an idea into a product meant crossing a massive gap.
You needed:
Developers to translate ideas into code
Designers to make interfaces look good
Copywriters to craft persuasive messaging
Growth/ops people to get the product out the door
Any break in that chain could kill a great idea.
How many brilliant concepts died because of six words: “I don’t know how to code”?
But now AI is actively closing that gap.
Code? AI writes it.
Cursor, Claude, GitHub Copilot—these AI coding tools are making “building with zero coding background” increasingly real.
You describe what you want in natural language, and AI generates runnable code. Don’t know Python? Fine. Don’t understand frontend? Doesn’t matter.
Your job is to be the “product manager”: clearly describe the blueprint in your head.
Design? AI creates it.
Midjourney, DALL·E, Canva AI—you no longer need to hire a designer just to make a logo.
You can even generate UI prototypes for an entire app, then hand them directly to a coding AI to implement.
The idea becomes the design; the description becomes the code.
Copy? AI drafts it.
Product descriptions, marketing copy, newsletter posts—AI can generate professional-grade content in minutes.
Taglines that used to require rounds of brainstorming now start with a simple prompt about positioning and target users.
You only need to judge: which version moves you more?
02 What’s truly scarce: a “good idea”
The technical barrier is disappearing. The cost of execution is collapsing.
But there’s one thing AI can’t replace:
Creativity.
More precisely: valuable ideas that genuinely solve a user’s pain point.
That’s the scarcest resource in the AI era.
Think about it:
AI can produce 100 different implementations, but it can’t tell you what product you should build.
AI can generate 1,000 marketing messages, but it can’t determine which one actually resonates.
AI can design 10,000 logos, but it can’t decide what your brand truly stands for.
AI is the world’s most powerful executor—but it isn’t a thinker.
It can mimic human tone, but it can’t truly feel a user’s anxiety.
It can answer “How,” but it can’t answer “What” and “Why.”
And what separates a 10/10 product from a 100/100 product is exactly the latter.
03 Product thinking is becoming essential for everyone
That’s why I say: in the AI era, everyone is a product manager.
Not that everyone needs the PM job title.
But the PM way of thinking is becoming a baseline skill for everyone.
So what is “product manager thinking”?
Start from user pain
Not “What do I want to build?” but “What does the user actually need?”
AI can implement anything—but if nobody needs it, everything is zero.Definition ability
Can you turn a vague idea into a clear product description?
That determines how much AI can help you. The clearer you are, the more accurate AI becomes.
A PM’s core skill is structuring complexity.Decision-making
AI will give you 100 options. Picking the right one is on you.
The true value is the mind that chooses well—not the machine that generates choices.Iterative mindset
Products aren’t built in one shot. They’re refined through iteration.
AI lets you validate faster—test quickly, fail quickly, adjust quickly, evolve quickly.
04 AI isn’t the finish line. It’s the starting line.
I’ve seen too many people fall into this trap:
“AI is so powerful—do I even need to learn anything anymore?”
That’s completely wrong.
AI lowers the execution barrier, not the cognition barrier.
You still need to understand:
What good user experience looks like
What a viable business model is
What pain points are genuinely valuable
What a sensible product roadmap looks like
AI moves you from “limited by skills” to “limited only by imagination.”
But imagination itself requires experience, thinking, and deliberate practice.
In other words: AI is Aladdin’s lamp—but you still need to know what wish to make.
05 The future belongs to the “super individual”
Back to that designer friend.
He isn’t a developer, a product manager, or a growth expert.
But he has:
Clear problem definition (solving the “designers struggle to find inspiration” pain)
Basic product sense (build an MVP and validate first)
A fast iteration mindset (0 to 1 in a single weekend)
AI turned his idea into a product.
This is the era of the “super individual.”
One person + AI = a team.
In the future, entrepreneurship won’t be about who has the biggest team or the most money.
It will be about whose ideas are more distinctive, who understands users better, and who iterates faster.
In the end: what are your ideas worth?
Some say the AI era will make developers unemployed, designers unemployed, copywriters unemployed…
That’s half true.
The ones who will truly be displaced are those who can only execute and cannot think.
But those with unique insight, creative brains, and strong product thinking—
they’re becoming more powerful than ever.
Because they’re no longer limited by “I don’t have that skill” or “I don’t know that tool.”
For the first time, their ideas can become reality with almost no friction.
So don’t just worry that AI will take your job.
Ask yourself the only question that matters:
“If AI can help me build any idea—what do I actually want to build?”
Your answer determines your value in the AI era.
Finally, if you don’t have a computer science background but want to learn AI, I recommend this book: “Learning AI from Scratch” (《零基础学 AI》): https://github.com/yeasy/ai_beginner_guide. It avoids obscure theory and focuses on practical tools and techniques you can actually use.
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