Getting your AI-built app ready for your team
You can now describe a tool to an AI, and it will write the code for you. In an hour you can have something that works on your laptop.
But a tool that works on your laptop isn't ready for your team yet. Things change once other people use it, and most of all once their information goes into it. A colleague's timesheet. A client's address. Last month's sales. From then on, people expect it to be there tomorrow, to be private, and to be right.
There are five things to sort out before that happens.
1. Who can get in
On your laptop, you're the only person using the app. Once it's on the internet, anyone who finds the address can try to open it.
So the app needs logins. Each person should log in as themselves, not with a shared password. That way you can let people in, and you can take them out again when they leave.
The app also needs to know who's who. The office manager might see everything, while a contractor sees only their own jobs.
2. Where the information is kept
A lot of first versions keep their data in a file next to the app, or in the browser. That's fine while you're testing it on your own.
It doesn't work when five people use the app at once and the file is on one laptop. Your team's information needs to be in a proper database. It's kept in one place, it has rules about what can go where, and several people can use it at the same time.
3. What happens when it stops working
On your laptop, if the app stops, you notice and start it again. When your team relies on it, it might stop at 2 am while you're asleep.
So the app needs to run on a computer that's always on. Something should start it again if it stops, and tell someone when there's a problem. Anything on a timer, like a report every Monday, needs to run even when your laptop is closed.
4. Backups
If the only copy of your team's data is on one computer, one accident can lose all of it.
You need regular backups, kept somewhere else. You also need to know that you can get the data back. Restore a backup at least once, so you know it works.
5. Who can change it
Right now, you change the app whenever you like. Once people depend on it, a change that breaks something breaks it for everyone.
So you need a safe way to update it. Try the change on a copy first. Keep the old version ready to go back to. And make sure a change to the database can be undone if it goes wrong.
A checklist for your own app
Before your team starts using your app, go through these questions:
- Does each person sign in as themselves, and can I remove someone in one step?
- Does each person see only what they should?
- Is the information in a real database, not in a file on my laptop?
- Does the app keep running when my laptop is closed?
- Will someone find out if it stops working?
- Is it backed up, and have I restored a backup to check?
- Can I update it without putting everyone's data at risk?
It's normal to answer no to a few of these. None of them are hard to fix. But your AI assistant won't think about them unless you ask.
This is what Whisk does. Your AI assistant writes the app, and Whisk puts it online with the sign-in, the database, the backups, the schedules and safe updates already set up.