Can AI build an app for you?
Yes. You describe what the app does, and an AI tool makes screens, logic and code. Within hours you have something you can click through, and for an app with one purpose that only you or your team use, that is sometimes the finish line. Take, for example, an accountancy firm that wants an app in which clients book an appointment and staff see their calendar.
Developers build with AI tools too these days. That is why a simple app for customers now costs from €2,500, as the cost breakdown of an app shows part by part. The difference between a demo and an app that customers can rely on is not writing the code. It is everything around it that has to be right.
What does AI do well?
AI is good at four things. It makes a first version fast: in an afternoon you see what your idea looks like and can show it to three people. It makes screens and simple logic, such as a list, a form, a calculator or an overview. It lets you try something out: if the idea comes to nothing, you have lost an afternoon instead of a month. And it makes changes to what is already there, such as moving a button, adding a field or adjusting a text.
What is missing before real users can rely on it?
A demo shows what an app can do when everything goes well. An app for customers also has to work when someone does something wrong, when the phone is updated and when a question comes up about what you do with data. This is what a demo usually lacks:
| What | Why it does not come right on its own | Hours, estimate |
|---|---|---|
| Signing in and permissions | A demo often has one user, or shows everyone everything | 2 – 20 |
| Data storage | Where is it, whose account, is there a backup | 2 – 8 |
| Privacy | Which data the app collects, and whether the privacy statement says so | 1 – 3 |
| Security | Keys in the code, unchecked input, known flaws | 2 – 8 |
| Testing on real devices | What works on one screen does not work on every device | 20% of the build |
| Publishing in the stores | Accounts, verification, the store page, the review | 4 – 8 |
| Maintenance | Every new version of iOS and Android can break something | 15 – 20% of the build cost a year |
Apple requires a privacy statement with every app (guideline 5.1.1), and what publishing involves is in what publishing costs. The hours are estimates, built from the same blocks as the cost breakdown. A sign-in on its own is 2 hours; add permissions per kind of user and it rises to 20. You can adjust the hours to your own app.
How much does AI save on an app to book appointments?
Take a simple app in which the accountancy firm’s clients sign in, see the free slots, book an appointment and see their own appointments. Built by a developer, that is 25 hours, €2,500:
| Part | Hours |
|---|---|
| Design | 3 |
| Signing in and accounts | 3 |
| Three screens | 9 |
| Publishing in the App Store and Google Play | 4 |
| Testing and fixing | 4 |
| Meetings and planning | 2 |
| Total | 25 |
Now let AI deliver the design and the screens and count them as free: that is 12 of the 25 hours. 13 hours remain: signing in 3, publishing 4, testing 4 and meetings 2, together €1,300. AI does not take more off than that, and even that only works if you can check the result. Each of those parts needs a person’s attention, because a mistake in them reaches customers or their data.
Already made a demo of your app with AI? Request a quote with the link, and we will work out what still has to happen before customers use it.
How can you make an app with AI?
An app can be made with AI in three ways:
| Way | What you get | What you do yourself | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| An app builder with AI | An app on the builder’s platform | Describe, adjust, publish | An internal tool or a demo |
| A chat assistant that writes code | Code and files | Put them somewhere, test, publish, maintain | Someone technical enough to judge it |
| A developer who uses AI | An app that is designed, built, tested and published | Decide and supply | An app for customers |
When is an app made with AI enough?
An app made with AI is enough in four situations. Only you or a small team use it, and no sensitive data is in it. It is a demo, because you want to know whether people want it before you have something built. It is temporary, for an event or a short period. Or you can judge yourself whether it is right: someone who cannot check the result depends on the tool.
When is an app made with AI not enough?
An app made with AI is not enough in four other situations:
- Customers sign in and their data is in it. Permissions and data storage are then the work, and a mistake is expensive.
- Payments are made, or you process data that goes beyond a name and an email address.
- The app has to be in the App Store and Google Play with your name on it. Your details are then public on the product page; read what you must supply for that.
- The app has to last for years. Code that nobody can read is maintenance you cannot hand over.
Does your app fit one of these four situations? Request a quote and describe who will use the app and which data goes into it.
How do you start well with an app made with AI?
Start in four steps. Write down in one sentence what the app does and for whom; if you cannot, the tool cannot either. Make a list of the data that goes in, because if personal data is among it, you have a different kind of project. Make a demo and show it to three people who are among your customers. And decide afterwards: if the demo is the answer, you are done, and if it is a beginning, you now know what to have built and you have an example a builder understands in an hour.
Ten points to check before real users arrive
If you cannot judge the result yourself, have someone check it. Each point takes a few minutes to an hour:
- Who sees what: create two accounts and see whether one can see the other’s data.
- Wrong input: empty fields, text where a number belongs, a very long text. What happens?
- Where the data is, and whose account that is.
- Keys and passwords: are they in the code or in a file that travels with the app?
- Poor signal: what does the user see when there is no connection?
- An old phone and a small screen.
- What the app collects, and whether the privacy statement says so.
- Deleting data: can a user get rid of their account and data, so that you can honour their rights?
- Taking it with you: can you take the code and the data if the tool stops or gets more expensive?
- Who does the updates when iOS or Android releases a new version?
How do you give an AI tool a good brief for an app?
A brief with plenty of context saves repair work. Say who the app is for and what a user has to be able to do in the first minute. Describe the screens, one by one, with what is on them. Name the data: what is stored, for how long and who may see it. Say what must not be in it, such as payments, children’s data or health. And end with a request: have the tool write down which assumptions it made, because that is where your mistakes are.
Frequently asked questions
Can ChatGPT build an app?
Yes, the code and the screens. You have to get it running somewhere yourself, test it and, if it is for customers, publish and maintain it. Those are the parts in the table.
Can Claude build an app?
Claude can too, and the limitations are the same. The difference between tools is in how good the code is and how much you can steer yourself, not in what you still have to do afterwards.
Do I have to be able to program to make an app with AI?
Not to begin with. To judge whether the result is sound, yes, or you need someone to do that for you.
What does an app with AI cost?
A subscription to an AI tool usually costs a few tens of euros a month. On top of that come your hours, an account in the stores (US$99 a year at Apple and US$25 once at Google) and what you need from the table. For an app that customers use, the hours cost far more than the subscription. If you have such an app built, a simple version starts at €2,500.
Is an app made with AI secure?
Whether an app made with AI is secure depends on who checks it. The mistakes in it are the same as in a person’s code: too many permissions, keys in the code, no checking of input. The difference is that nobody looks at a demo, and code that is written fast is published faster than it is checked.
Can a developer take over an app made with AI later?
Yes. The clearer the code is, the less time it takes, and code without structure sometimes takes more time to understand than to build again.
Having an app for customers built
If the app is for yourself or a small team and you can check the result, you do not need us. If you want an app for customers, with signing in, data and a place in the stores, we build it, from €2,500. We use AI tools where they save time, and we check the parts in the table ourselves. Request a quote and describe what the app has to do. If you already have a demo, it is a good start for the quote.
Want this built, or want to talk it through?
Write to us with what it is for, who will use it and when you need it. We reply within one working day.
Read next
- Can AI build your business website? What it missesWhat an AI tool does for your website, what it leaves to you and how to decide whether it is enough.
- Publishing an app: what the App Store and Google Play costWhat Apple and Google charge, what you must supply to register and what becomes public on the product page.
- How much does it cost to build an app? From €2,500Where the price of an app starts, what each addition costs and how to work out a number for your own idea.
