Should we show non-developers what AI can build today?

A few months ago, a friend — who runs a small business — asked me: "Can you build me an app that tracks job site deadlines and sends automatic reminders?" I said yes. And I built a working prototype in about an hour. His reaction wasn't excitement. It was confusion . "Wait — that's it? I've been paying an agency for 6 months and they haven't delivered anything." That conversation stuck with me. The question I keep asking myself As software engineers, we're watching AI reshape our craft in real time. Tools like Cursor, Antigravity, Warp, Claude, GPT — they've changed how fast we can go from idea to working product. But here's the thing: most people outside tech have no idea this is happening. Entrepreneurs are still spending months and tens of thousands of euros on MVPs (at least in Italy). Small business owners are still stuck with spreadsheets because "custom software is too expensive." People with genuinely good ideas don't even try because they assume building software requires a te