AI Agents for Business: Rethinking What 'Fast' Means

In the rapidly evolving landscape of business technology, we're approaching an inflection point that will fundamentally change how organisations think about software development and technology implementation. My recent experience building a company website taught me a valuable lesson about the changing definition of "fast" in today's AI-driven world of business process automation.

The Traditional Approach: Low-Code/No-Code

When I launched Agentic Solutions, I followed the conventional wisdom that has served businesses well for many years. I needed a website quickly, so I researched website builders and selected a platform that promised professional results without coding knowledge.

This approach makes perfect sense in a traditional technology paradigm. After all:

• Small businesses typically don't have the resources to hire dedicated developers
• Low-code/no-code solutions offer templated approaches that speed up initial deployment
• The trade-off between up-front speed and long-term flexibility has generally favored the former

It's the same reason most businesses use SaaS products rather than building custom solutions. Why build your own CRM when you can subscribe to an established platform? The economics have always favored renting versus building.

When "Fast" Falls Short

But my experience with website builders quickly revealed the limitations of this approach. Despite their promise of speed and ease, I encountered numerous challenges:

• Templates often looked like templates, lacking the distinctive feel I wanted for my brand
• Customizations frequently looked out of place or broke the template's cohesive design
• Making responsive designs work across devices required extensive trial and error
• AI-generated sites provided disappointing results with limited flexibility for updates

Eventually, I used the platform to build a site from scratch. While the results were better, the effort required was substantially higher than anticipated. As someone who can code in React but isn't a front-end specialist, I found myself in an uncomfortable middle ground—skilled enough to see the problems but spending excessive time solving them.

Implementing AI Agents for Custom Development

Since building the website, I had been increasingly using AI agents for various business tasks, including coding. So while struggling with some recent site changes, the question occurred to me: could I use AI agents for my website development too?

My instincts — shaped by decades of technology experience — initially pushed back. We've all been trained to believe that custom coding is the slow, expensive way. The common wisdom suggests using pre-built solutions whenever possible.

But curiosity led me to experiment. How quickly could I create a proof-of-concept homepage using AI agents instead of no-code tools?

The results were eye-opening. Within just a few days, I had relaunched my site with a version 100% coded by AI agents. It wasn't perfect, but neither was the original. The key difference? When I found issues or needed to add content, the AI implementation helped me make changes far more quickly than I could with the website builder.

Measuring the Business Benefits of AI Agents

This experience highlighted the tangible business benefits of AI agents beyond just website development:

1. Reduced Time-to-Solution: Problems that once required weeks can often be solved in days or hours with the right AI agent implementation

2. Increased Customization: Solutions tailored precisely to your business needs rather than adapting to a platform's limitations

3. Lower Technical Barriers: Business professionals can now direct sophisticated technical solutions without deep expertise in coding

4. Future-Proofing: Custom solutions that evolve with your needs, without being locked into a platform's roadmap

5. Cost Efficiency: Competitive with subscription costs for premium SaaS tools, especially for long-term projects

The AI agent vs no-code solutions comparison isn't about abandoning platforms entirely. It's about recognizing when AI can provide a faster path to exactly what you need.

Relearning What We Know About AI for Business

This experimentation demonstrated something important: we're entering an era where businesses need to relearn what we thought we already knew about technology implementation.

I've experienced similar pivotal moments before. The shift to cloud computing wasn't simply about new tools—it required relearning how software was built entirely. AI Agents for business are triggering another fundamental reassessment.

What's changing is our definition of "fast."

• Old definition: Fast meant avoiding writing code by using pre-built solutions
• New definition: Fast means finding the right AI agents to do the work for us

This shift is profound because AI agents are getting exponentially better at writing, testing, deploying, and monitoring code every month. The economics that once made "build vs. buy" an easy decision are rapidly evolving, especially for small business AI agent solutions.

The New Question for Business Leaders

For decades, business leaders have asked: "Is there a way we can do this without hiring our own developers?" This question led to the massive growth of SaaS platforms and no-code tools.

But subscribing to a SaaS solution is still hiring a development team—you're just sharing the cost with other subscribers.

In the age of AI agents, the fundamental question for Australian businesses is transforming into: "Do we have the right AI agents to get it done?"

This doesn't mean every business should suddenly abandon their SaaS subscriptions or no-code platforms. Rather, it means we need to recalibrate our thinking about when custom solutions make sense and who (or what) builds them.

Final Thoughts

Technology has always required us to periodically reconsider our assumptions. The rise of AI agents represents another such moment—one that compels us to rethink what "fast" really means in technology implementation.

For business and technology leaders navigating this transition, staying open to these shifting economics will be crucial. The fastest path forward may no longer be the one that avoids code entirely, but rather the one that leverages AI to make custom code accessible to everyone.

The question isn't whether this transition will happen, but how quickly your organization will adapt to this new definition of "fast."

Interested in learning more about implementing AI agents for your business? Book a consultation to find out how we can help.