Opinion: AI Hype Cycle Leaves Agencies Caught Between Client Panic and Broken Code

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A developer and agency professional argues that the rapid succession of AI model launches—from Google's Gemini to Anthropic's Claude—has created noise without meaningful change for working professionals. The author contends that the primary beneficiaries of AI coding and productivity tools are domain-savvy clients who prefer cheap, direct access over hiring agencies, not the agencies themselves. However, clients frequently return to developers after AI-generated code breaks in production, yet blame still falls on human professionals rather than the models. The piece also highlights a pattern where clients use tools like Lovable or Bolt to generate websites they cannot maintain, then seek urgent help from the same developers they bypassed. The author concludes that despite predictions of industry death—whether for SEO, agencies, or traditional development—the underlying demand for skilled human intervention has not disappeared.

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