Most business owners nod politely when I talk about this AI stuff — and then go back to using Excel spreadsheets from 2015.
So here is a real example. We had a small problem at miniFU, our indoor playground at FU Café in Tenerife. Tracking hours for Indira and Hilda, our two childcare workers. Both do flexible 20-hour weeks, but I never actually knew who was working when, whether someone was pulling overtime, or if they were doing external tasks like event prep or supply runs.
My first obvious thought? Google Sheets. We know it well, and honestly — it would probably have worked fine.
But then I had a moment: why settle for "probably works fine" when I could just build exactly what we need?
Thirty minutes later: a fully working app. In Spanish. Visual number pad, weekly reports, overtime calculations — everything tailored to our specific situation.
"I treated this like it was completely normal. Expected nothing less than success."
No drama. No "I hope this works." I just opened Claude and said: "I need something to track hours for two employees." Of course it would work.
Described the problem in plain English
"I need to track hours for two employees with flexible 20-hour weeks, including overtime and external tasks."
Iterated through ~20 versions
Each fix was just explaining what was wrong in plain language. "When they're both working the same shift, I need to know why" — boom, fixed.
Working app in 30 minutes
Visual number pad, weekly reports, overtime calculations, bilingual interface. Hosted by us with passwords and extra functionality.
I know nothing about coding. But I can describe a business problem clearly — and get exactly the tool I need in return.
- Hours researching options that don't quite fit
- 47 features you don't need
- Monthly subscription for something 80% right
- Workarounds for your specific situation
- 30 minutes from idea to working app
- Exactly the features you need — nothing more
- Built for your specific situation
- Iterated in plain English, no coding required
Not some bloated software with 47 features we don't want. Just our thing, built for our specific situation. This is just normal now. Small problem? Build a solution. It takes less time than researching existing apps — which probably wouldn't fit anyway.
Anyone else treating AI like this yet? Like it is just another tool that obviously works?