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Do You Really Need an Agency to Build Your Product?
A guide to building your product in an AI-native era
Karan Shah
July 28, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
Over the past two years, the way we build products has undergone a seismic shift. Everything has undergone an overhaul: the tools, the tech stack and more importantly, the mindset, the process, and even the expectations of who builds what.
Let me give you a quick example.
Just last week, I deployed an AI agent for our internal team. Using n8n, OpenAI, and a few Slack hooks, this bot helps us log time, track who's working on what, and connect Slack channels directly to Clockify projects—all via natural language.
It took me under 100 hours!
This raises the question: in an age where individuals can prototype entire systems in just a few days, do you really need an agency to build your product?
The Rise of the AI-Native Builder
The explosion of tools like Replit, Lovable, Cursor, and GitHub Copilot (and now GitHub Spark) has empowered individual contributors like never before. Consider this:
82% of developers are expected to use AI-assisted coding tools by 2025.
70% of new enterprise apps will be built with low-code/no-code platforms.
Builders today don’t need to write every line of code by hand. They need to validate quickly, iterate confidently, and scale when ready.
And yet, many founders still default to hiring large agencies upfront. That made sense five years ago. Today? It often doesn’t.
So When Does an Agency Make Sense?
When the agency is AI-native.
These are agencies that have retooled their internal workflows to:
Use AI to write and refactor code faster.
Spin up MVPs using no-code tools before investing in full-stack builds.
Translate product ideas to real outcomes using lean processes.
Balance compliance (HIPAA, SOC2, GDPR) with velocity.
At SoluteLabs, for example, up to 85% of all code is assisted by AI. Our current baseline is that 50% of all code is generated via AI.
We’ve restructured our services entirely:
We build AI agents and internal automations that eliminate operational inefficiencies.
We embed GenAI into new and existing products to enhance intelligence and personalization.
We move faster, design better, and build for scale with lower cloud costs.
We’re faster, leaner, and more aligned with modern product expectations than most traditional agencies.
Who Should Still Work with an Agency?
Here are the two main client profiles I see benefiting the most from AI-native agencies:
AI-First Startups
| Enterprise Teams
|
The Hybrid Is Here
Increasingly, I’m seeing hybrid setups:
Founders with in-house PMs who outsource builds.
Teams that use specialists for core tech and AI-native agencies for speed.
Fixed-cost projects where AI-native workflows win on both cost and timeline.
Agencies aren’t going away. But traditional ones might.
Why I’m Writing This
This is the first edition of "Brew. Build. Breakthrough.": a newsletter where I share honest takes, experiments, and practical frameworks around building products at the intersection of AI, design, and engineering.
If you’re a founder, product leader, or builder navigating this new era, you’ll find plenty here to brew over.
About me
 Working from the Mountains | Karan Shah: Engineer turned Founder15 years ago, I started my career as a software engineer. Took the entrepreneurial plunge with less than 5 years of work experience. Since then, I’ve strived to work at the intersection of Product Engineering, Design, Marketing, and Sales. I’ve had the pleasure to work with some of the fastest-growing startups and large enterprises alike. From creating MVPs and clients raising funds to large enterprises going for an IPO! |
Brew. Build. Breakthrough.
Karan Shah
Founder & CEO, SoluteLabs
Building AI-native products before it became cool.
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