- AI can get you to a functional MVP quickly
- Most AI-built apps look and feel generic
- AI optimizes for what’s common, not what’s differentiated
- Product judgment (what to build, what to cut) still requires experience
- Good design is now a primary competitive advantage, not a layer on top
- The best teams use AI, but don’t blindly trust it
- Agencies are still valuable for direction, taste, and system-level thinking
2026 Is the Year of Intentionality
At the beginning of January, it seemed like every other Instagram post mentioned “intentionality” as the theme of 2026. And while influencers were talking about wellness or building a side hustle, they may have actually been on to something.
Four months into 2026, AI has evolved from a productivity sidekick into a full-blown product team for many people. It’s empowered founders and teams to build faster and cheaper than ever before.
But there’s a catch. Something many of these products lack is intentionality, which has ironically become a theme in product, not just wellness.
Building Is No Longer the Bottleneck
Let’s be honest: hiring an employee or agency to design and build an MVP can feel unnecessary when you can open Claude Code and generate a full-stack app in an evening.
We get it. Upgrading to Claude Max has been one of the best investments we’ve made as an agency. We’ve used it to build internal tools that have completely changed how we operate.
But we’ve also noticed something consistent:
Every app we build with AI starts to look the same:
- Generic UI
- Bloated feature sets
- “Technically correct” decisions
The apps work. But they don’t feel finished. We almost always end up back in Figma—redesigning the UI and rethinking the user experience.
The Side Effect: A Flood of Sameness
Guess what happens when everyone can build an app? Everyone builds an app.
Engineering is no longer the bottleneck. And that’s a good thing. It’s never been easier to bring ideas to life. But the downside is that he market is now flooded with products that all feel the same.
In a more saturated landscape, intentionality (there it is) and polish matter more than ever. Not just to stand out, but to actually meet business goals.
Why AI-Built Apps All Feel the Same
Have an idea for an AI-driven fitness app? So do thousands of other people.
And while the features might differ slightly, the product will likely feel familiar.
That’s because:
- You’re using the same tools
- Built on the same models
- Trained on the same patterns
Changing the typeface or swapping a color palette doesn’t solve the deeper issue because most AI-built apps share the same UI structures, the same onboarding flows, and the same feature logic.
AI defaults to the average of everything it has seen.
What Intentionality Actually Looks Like
Think about a product you genuinely enjoy using. For me, it’s a football (soccer) app called FotMob.
After years of using clunky sports apps, this one stands out because:
- It feels effortless
- If has exactly what I need (and nothing extra)
- The design is clean to the point of being invisible
It just works and it feels good to use. That doesn’t happen by accident.
Every great product is built on intentional decisions:
- What to show
- What to hide
- What to emphasize
- What to remove
Nothing is default.
Design Is Decision-Making
Take something like booking an Airbnb. Every interaction is designed to reduce hesitation. The way filters are organized, how pricing is displayed, where reviews appear, how photos are prioritized, and when you’re prompted to take action all serve a purpose. None of it is random. Good product design is not just making things look better. It’s making decisions that help users understand, trust, and act.
Where AI Falls Short
AI can generate a screen. It can suggest a layout. It can produce a clean dashboard. But it doesn’t understand why a user hesitates before signing up. Or why a pricing page feels unclear. Or why one onboarding flow creates momentum and another creates friction
AI can imitate patterns, but it doesn’t know which one is right for your product. That’s the gap.
How We Actually Use AI
We use AI every day. But we don’t treat it as the source of truth. We push back on it to question the feature set, simplify unnecessary elements, and rethink the experience. And we almost always end up visually redesigning any UI elements it comes up with.
We look at the product through the lens of the user and the business—not just what the prompt generated.
Engineering Still Matters Too
The same applies on the engineering side. A generated codebase might look solid, but there are still critical questions:
- Is the architecture built to scale?
- Are integrations secure?
- Is the data model flexible enough for what’s next?
- Are we introducing technical debt?
AI helps you move faster. But speed without judgment creates a different kind of mess.
The Real Shift
You can build your app with AI. You probably should. It’s one of the biggest advantages founders have ever had. But building something that works is no longer the goal.
Building something that people trust, remember, and actually want to use is the bar now.
The Takeaway
The next wave of products won’t win because they were built the fastest.
They’ll win because they were built with:
- Taste
- Restraint
- Clarity
- Intentionality
Maybe the influencers (still hate them) were right after all. 2026 is the year of intentionality.