AI has opened the floodgates. For the first time in history, anyone with an idea can build an app without knowing how to code. It’s like handing everyone a 3D printer and saying, “Go ahead, make whatever you want.” The result? A tidal wave of digital creations—most of them destined to sink without a trace.
The App Store Gold Rush
It feels like a gold rush. Whenever a new opportunity appears, people charge in, convinced they’ll strike it rich. Today, that rush is happening in the app stores, powered by AI tools that let anyone create with almost no barrier to entry.
But here’s the thing about gold rushes: most people leave empty-handed. The real winners are usually the ones selling the tools. In our case, those tool-sellers are the AI platforms profiting from the flood of app-building dreams.
The Problem with Easy Creation
When creating becomes easy, creating well becomes the real challenge.
AI has solved the “how” of app building (to a certain degree…), but not the “what” or the “why.” Anyone can spin up an app that runs, but building one that matters? That’s still brutally hard.
App Stores Are Feeling the Impact
Even major app stores have noticed the flood. In the past year, rejection rates have hit record highs, as platforms raise the bar to stop low-quality, repetitive, or copycat apps from clogging their ecosystems.
Discovery rules have also shifted. Features that once gave new apps a small boost have been dialed back or removed, after being gamed by AI-generated variations. The welcome mat is gone.
And the numbers are staggering: in just a few months, hundreds of new AI-powered apps appeared in the marketplace, with downloads and spending soaring by thousands of percent. Platforms looked at the trend and realized: if they didn’t act, their stores would drown in noise.
The Coming Wave of Digital Junk
We’re about to see an explosion of apps that resemble fast fashion for software:
- Quickly produced
- Solving problems nobody really has
- Riddled with security gaps
- Abandoned within months
The result will be a digital landfill. Most of these apps will be the equivalent of late-night infomercial gadgets: technically functional, but ultimately pointless.
Why Most Will Fail
Building an app isn’t a single event—it’s more like planting a garden. AI can dig the first hole and drop the seed, but success requires much more:
- Constant care – updates, bug fixes, ongoing improvements
- Deep roots – solving real problems for real people
- Resilience – adapting when security issues or platform rules change
- Smart pruning – evolving based on user feedback
Most AI-made apps won’t survive their first season.
The Skills That Still Matter
AI is like GPS: it helps you get somewhere, but it doesn’t decide if the destination is worth going to.
The skills that separate success from failure haven’t changed:
- Identifying problems worth solving
- Listening to users and iterating effectively
- Persisting when things get tough
- Understanding business, security, and user experience fundamentals
Without these, AI is just a shortcut to nowhere.
The Great Correction Ahead
In a few years, we’ll look back on this period much like other tech frenzies in history. Remember when everyone launched a website, and most faded into obscurity? The app stores are heading the same way—toward ghost towns filled with abandoned experiments.
AI democratizing creation isn’t a bad thing—it’s revolutionary. But powerful tools amplify both brilliance and mediocrity. The real winners will be those who pair AI’s speed with patience, vision, and genuine problem-solving.
The Bottom Line
AI has handed everyone a printing press. That doesn’t mean everyone will create something worth reading. The gold rush will fade, the quick-money dreams will crumble, and what remains will be the apps built by people who understood that technology is only the beginning—not the end—of building value.
The tool-sellers will thrive. But most of the miners? They’ll discover that fool’s gold still shines, but it’s worthless in the end.