What I’m learning building software for businesses, from Bustem and alstro. Every post also goes out by email.https://alialkhateeb.comenhttps://alialkhateeb.com/blog/the-ai-revolution-hasnt-startedhttps://alialkhateeb.com/blog/the-ai-revolution-hasnt-startedEveryone in tech thinks it already happened. Most businesses haven’t touched it.Thu, 05 Nov 2026 00:00:00 GMT<p>Everyone in tech thinks the AI revolution already happened. I think it hasn’t started.</p> <p>The people who use AI every day are a small bubble on the internet. Most people outside it don’t use it, and most businesses haven’t touched it. The real shift starts when it reaches them, and almost nobody is building for that.</p> <h2 id="the-bubble">The bubble</h2> <p>If you work in tech, it’s easy to miss how small this world is. Everyone you follow is arguing about the newest model, and everyone you work with has an AI tool open all day. It feels like the whole economy has already moved.</p> <p>It hasn’t. Walk into most businesses and the work looks the way it did five years ago. The knowledge lives in people’s heads, in spreadsheets and in software nobody has touched in a decade. The owner has heard of AI. They haven’t seen it do anything for them.</p> <p>That gap is the opportunity. The next chat box for people who already live in one isn’t the big thing. Software that works for people who have never needed to think about any of this is.</p> <h2 id="almost-right-isnt-good-enough">Almost right isn’t good enough</h2> <p>A demo of that is easy. Something a business can trust is not.</p> <p>Inside the bubble, people forgive a wrong answer, because they know how the tool works and they check it. Outside it, the software has to know the rules of the trade, show its reasoning, and stop when it isn’t sure. Nobody running a plumbing company is going to learn to write better prompts. The product has to meet them where they already work.</p> <h2 id="what-it-looks-like-when-its-real">What it looks like when it’s real</h2> <p>I saw this at <a href="https://bustem.com">Bustem</a>, where I joined as the third engineer and built the copycat detection and the takedown engine. Brands don’t want an AI story. They want the fakes gone. Bustem has taken down more than 100,000 of them for over 160 brands, and the customers never have to think about the models underneath.</p> <p>The AI is the engine, and the customer never has to care. They care that the fake listing is down.</p> <h2 id="where-the-work-is">Where the work is</h2> <p>That’s why I run <a href="https://alstro.co">alstro</a>, my agency in New York. We build custom software and AI for businesses that haven’t caught up yet. They have real problems and real customers, and nobody has built anything for the way they actually work.</p> <p>The people building for the bubble are competing with each other. The people building for everyone else have almost nobody to compete with.</p> <p>The revolution starts when your dentist, your contractor and your insurance broker are using this without knowing what a model is. We’re not close. That’s the best news I can think of if you build things.</p> AIBusiness