There are more AI tools now than ever before and the landscape is shifting incredibly quickly. Instead of getting overwhelmed, we recommend approaching with curiosity. You do not need to try every tool or become a developer or expert before you can start using AI in useful ways.
In this CodeYam Academy session, CodeYam CEO and Cofounder Nadia Eldeib shares a practical snapshot of AI tools as of September 2026, primarily for people who are newer to AI, technology, and/or building software.
This session covers:
- What terms like models, agents, automations, memory, and context actually mean
- How to compare AI tools based on where they work and what they can access
- The differences between working in a browser, desktop app, editor, mobile app, and terminal
- How to give AI useful context and improve your results through iteration
- Why you should not expect one “perfect prompt” to produce a perfect one-shotted result
- How to diagnose problems and escape rabbit holes when you get stuck
- What to consider around privacy, training, customer data, and file permissions
- What you can build, including websites, apps, automations, reusable skills, and connections to other tools
- How to choose the smallest, simplest version of an idea to start with
Nadia is not an engineer by training, but she now uses AI to build websites, mobile apps, Chrome extensions, Claude skills, and other software that she could not previously build on her own. This session draws on that experience to offer an approachable starting point for anyone curious about doing more with AI.
You do not need an engineering degree or a perfectly formed idea to build software today. You just need curiosity, a willingness to experiment and learn, and enough patience to keep iterating when the first result is not what you imagined.