AlexZha-dev

🤖 AI Engineer | Python Backend Developer
⚡ FastAPI • LLMs • AI Agents • APIs
🚀 Building AI-powered applications
💡 Sharing what I build & learn

[AlexZha-dev @AlexZhadev]

So I had this little idea. I needed to transfer some files from my phone to my PC and thought, why not just build something myself?

Played around with FastAPI and Flet, and ended up with a small desktop app that lets me transfer files over my local network using just a browser.

Nothing fancy, just a fun experiment.

Would you actually use something like this? 🤔

[AlexZha-dev @AlexZhadev]

But we already have a free Excel alternative like GridCraft. That's exactly my point. Products like Office will increasingly be replaced by free alternatives, and monetizing software will only get harder when you're competing with free options.

The real problem isn't open source itself. It's declining demand.

AI is affecting a lot of high-paying jobs, and some are already disappearing. People without stable jobs will save more and spend less on subscriptions, choosing free alternatives like GridCraft instead. And there will only be more of those alternatives.

And we've come full circle.

[AlexZha-dev @AlexZhadev]

Sure, 100 engineers with AI can produce more than 1 engineer with AI. But who says the market actually needs 100 engineers worth of output?

If 1 engineer can now do what used to take 10, why would a company keep hiring at the same rate?

More potential productivity doesn't automatically mean more demand or more paid jobs😅

[AlexZha-dev @AlexZhadev]

Wanting endless features doesn't mean you need endless developers.

Even now, a lot of small features can be built just by asking a top AI model, without involving a developer or the company.

I think more users will start modifying software themselves instead of waiting for official updates. I've already seen managers with no coding background try this, sometimes failing, sometimes actually making it work.

And that's not even mentioning how many people will move to open source and start building features there, potentially quite efficiently.

But where exactly are the new paid jobs supposed to come from in this scenario?

[AlexZha-dev @AlexZhadev]

I feel like this only works for physical goods, where there's a constant cycle of production and consumption.

Digital products are a different story. You build something once and then it can be used and copied infinitely at basically zero cost.

Subscriptions are pretty much the only thing keeping this model alive, and even that falls apart if someone builds a free open source alternative😅

[AlexZha-dev @AlexZhadev]

@meandshiraz I can help :)

[AlexZha-dev @AlexZhadev]

@prowaitter Let's goooo

[AlexZha-dev @AlexZhadev]

@DragorWW Well, they’re already stealing attention. The average time spent on the phone is 5–7 hours a day.🤷‍♂️

[AlexZha-dev @AlexZhadev]

@TimRedBrother Use a Windows laptop?

[AlexZha-dev @AlexZhadev]

@bodryachog Well, that's assuming there'll still be people who can afford to buy anything. If everyone keeps pushing to replace workers with AI, purchasing power could eventually collapse. Who's going to buy all those products if nobody has an income?😅🤣

[AlexZha-dev @AlexZhadev]

@CastorLabsDev That’s great! Which model did you use for training? Or did you train it from scratch?

I connected ✊

[AlexZha-dev @AlexZhadev]

Curious how many people here are actually working in tech 👀

I'm looking to connect with more people in IT, whether you're a backend engineer, frontend dev, DevOps, SRE, QA, data engineer, AI/ML engineer, or building your own startup.

What do you do, what's your tech stack, and what are you currently working on?

Drop it in the replies. Let's find some interesting people to connect with. 🚀

[AlexZha-dev @AlexZhadev]

@gbrancaglione_ Hello! Connected :)

[AlexZha-dev @AlexZhadev]

But you still use knives, right?😅 Blacksmiths used to make those too. Technology simply made production easier and cheaper. The same will happen with software. The easier it becomes to build a product, the closer its price gets to zero. And the more industries become unprofitable, the fewer employees businesses can afford to keep.

That's the only long-term outcome I can see.

[AlexZha-dev @AlexZhadev]

AI won't create new jobs on the same scale. We're approaching a point where software, websites, and even content will be generated on demand with a single click.

When creation becomes that easy, prices will trend toward zero or the cost of a monthly subscription.

That's the key difference: past technologies created new skill-based jobs. AI removes the need for those skills in the first place.

Why would anyone hire someone to build something they can generate themselves in one click?

What a brave new world. 🙃

[AlexZha-dev @AlexZhadev]

I've heard an interesting argument that Universal Basic Income (UBI) could be the solution when AI starts replacing millions of jobs.

But would giving everyone a guaranteed income actually solve the problem, or just create new ones?

How do you think UBI would affect the economy, governments, and society in the long run?

Curious to hear your thoughts 👇

[AlexZha-dev @AlexZhadev]

And here's what worries me most. I don't think governments can simply regulate their way out of this. The entire bet seems to be that AI will increase productivity so much that it will compensate for the jobs and income it destroys. Maybe it will, but I'm skeptical. Productivity doesn't automatically create purchasing power. Sure, unemployment benefits and retraining programs might help, but to me that's like putting a bandage on a gunshot wound without removing the bullet. We're potentially building an economy where companies need fewer and fewer people to produce goods and services, while still depending on those same people to buy them. And if wealth keeps concentrating at the top, who exactly is supposed to keep the economy running? That's the real AI paradox. We're so focused on making everything cheaper to produce that we're forgetting to ask one simple question: WHO WILL BUY IT?

[AlexZha-dev @AlexZhadev]

I have a feeling the tech job market is going to get much worse, and the consequences could spread far beyond IT. Think about it. AI makes employees dramatically more productive, so companies realize they can do the same amount of work with fewer people. They start cutting expensive positions, especially in tech. Sounds like a great business strategy, right? But here's the problem nobody seems to talk about enough. Those same employees are also consumers. They're the people paying for SaaS products, subscriptions, mortgages, cars, restaurants, and thousands of other things. When they lose their income, they stop spending. And that's where this whole AI productivity story starts looking a lot less exciting.

[AlexZha-dev @AlexZhadev]

Now imagine this happening across multiple industries at once. Companies reduce headcount, consumer spending falls, businesses lose revenue, and suddenly they need to cut costs again. More layoffs, less spending, less revenue. The cycle repeats. At Davos in January 2026, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink warned that AI could do to white-collar workers what globalization did to blue-collar workers. He also raised concerns about AI concentrating wealth among those who own the technology. And on November 5, the Nasdaq dropped 5.5% amid concerns about AI infrastructure spending and restrictions on data-center expansion. A stock market correction isn't a recession, but it shows how quickly confidence can disappear. We're building an economy around extraordinary productivity gains without really answering who gets to benefit from them.