Hello, My Name Is Alan, and I Am an AI Builder

Alan Shimel, CEO of Techstrong Group, declares himself an AI builder and introduces the AI Builder Maturity Model in a new Techstrong Special Report, arguing that building with AI no longer requires coding skills. The model outlines six stages from Consumer to AI Orchestrator, emphasizing that the next phase of the AI era will be defined by what non-developers create with AI. The report is available for download as a PDF.

TL;DR — Key Takeaways - You don’t need to be a coder to be a builder. If you use AI to make something new, like an article, an app or a workflow, you’re building. - Using AI once in a while isn’t the same as building with it. The value shows up when you use it across more than a few parts of your work. - AI makes it easier to try things, but it doesn’t hand you expertise. Judgment, accuracy and accountability still come from you. Hello, my name is Alan, and I am an AI builder. I mean that literally. I have used AI to design and build websites. I have coded plugins and web applications with it. I use it to research articles, test arguments, create graphics, prepare interviews, analyze business questions and develop ideas into Special Reports. I am not primarily a software developer, and AI has not magically turned me into one. An experienced engineer will recognize risks, architectural decisions and consequences that I might miss. What AI has done is allow me to take an idea much farther toward a working result than I could have a few years ago. AI has collapsed much of the distance between intention and execution. That makes me a builder. It also makes millions of other people builders, whether or not they think of themselves that way. We spent the first phase of the AI era watching technology companies build artificial intelligence. We followed the competition among foundation models, debated training data, measured computing power and tried to determine which companies would control the market. The next phase will be defined by what everyone else builds with it. Developers are building software. Writers are producing articles and books. Musicians are turning melodies into finished compositions. Artists are creating images and videos. Marketers are assembling campaigns. Educators are developing personalized lessons. Entrepreneurs are prototyping businesses that previously would have required employees, agencies or outside investment. Building is no longer synonymous with coding. Using AI Is Not the Same as Building With It Asking a chatbot for a restaurant recommendation is consumption. Asking it to summarize a document or revise an email is assistance. Both may be valuable, but they are still a long way from creating a durable capability. Building begins when someone uses AI deliberately to bring something new into existence. The result might be an article, an application, a song, a financial model or a business process. As the work becomes iterative, repeatable and connected to other tools and data, the person advances from making an artifact to building a workflow or system. This progression is the foundation of the AI Builder Maturity Model introduced in our new Techstrong Special Report, “Hello, My Name Is … and I Am an AI Builder.” The model begins with the Consumer, who asks AI for information or an answer. The Assisted Maker uses it to complete a discrete task. The Collaborative Creator works iteratively with AI toward a finished result. The Workflow Builder turns successful collaboration into a repeatable process with defined inputs, standards and review points. The System Builder connects AI with data, tools and applications. At the final stage, the AI Orchestrator coordinates multiple agents, systems and people. These are not job titles, nor does everyone move through them in a straight line. A software engineer might be an AI orchestrator when developing an application and merely an assisted maker when creating a presentation. The significance lies in the direction of travel: from asking to doing, from individual artifacts to repeatable capabilities and from passive consumption to intentional creation. Download the Full Report PDF https://techstrong.ai/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Hello-My-Name-Is-.-and-I-Am-an-AI-Builder-%E2%80%94-Techstrong-Special-Report-1.pdf The Builder Economy Is Real, but Immature The U.S. Census Bureau https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2026/08/ai-use-at-work.html found that 55% of American workers used AI for at least one job-related task in March 2026. Gallup https://www.gallup.com/workplace/712736/organizational-adoption-jumps-six-points.aspx similarly found that 52% of U.S. employees used AI in their roles. Writing, editing, search and research remained the most common applications, but frequent users were considerably more likely to use AI for coding, automation and project management. Gallup https://www.gallup.com/workplace/712736/organizational-adoption-jumps-six-points.aspx also found a strong relationship between the breadth of AI use and reported productivity. Among people using AI for one or two purposes, 45% reported a positive productivity effect. That increased to 66% for three or four purposes, 78% for five or six, and 90% among people using it for seven or more. That is correlation, not proof that adding more AI automatically makes someone productive. More capable or motivated workers may be both broader users and better performers. Still, the pattern supports the builder model: The value of AI appears to increase as people integrate it more deeply into how they work. Most of us remain early in that progression. The OECD https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/generative-ai-and-the-sme-workforce 2d08b99d-en/full-report/component-4.html found that only 29% of AI-using small and midsize businesses applied it to core activities. Usage was more likely to be simple, one-off and peripheral than complex, recurring and central to the business. Yet more than one-third of those businesses said AI enabled them to perform tasks that had previously been impossible, and roughly one-third said it helped create new products or services. AI is not simply helping companies perform existing work faster. It is expanding what smaller organizations and individuals can realistically attempt. Attempt Is Not Mastery There is an essential qualification: AI democratizes the ability to attempt and produce. It does not democratize mastery. A person can generate an application without understanding whether it is secure, scalable or maintainable. Someone can produce a polished article without knowing whether its claims are accurate. An image can be technically impressive while remaining derivative and forgettable. AI lowers the cost of trying. It does not eliminate the value of expertise, judgment, taste, testing or accountability. As the production of acceptable content and software becomes easier, those qualities become more important. That responsibility extends to the enterprise. Employees are adopting AI and building with it faster than many organizations can formalize their policies and platforms. The answer cannot simply be to prohibit experimentation. That will drive productive activity into unapproved tools and invisible workflows. Organizations need to give their builders a paved road: approved tools, safe access to data, reusable components, training and a clear route for moving a promising prototype into a secure, governed production environment. Controls should become stronger as a creation becomes more repeatable, connected and consequential. The complete Special Report examines the AI Builder Maturity Model in detail, along with supporting research, examples from software and creative work, and the growing questions involving governance, authorship, dependency and human accountability. We are all becoming builders. That is an invitation, not a credential. The title of builder is becoming available to everyone. Earning it still requires intention, judgment and responsibility. The defining question of the AI era may no longer be who is building the models. It may be what the rest of us choose to build with them. Download the full Techstrong Special Report: “Hello, My Name Is … and I Am an AI Builder.” https://techstrong.ai/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Hello-My-Name-Is-.-and-I-Am-an-AI-Builder-%E2%80%94-Techstrong-Special-Report-1.pdf