The Future of Glide

General
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Software does not stand still. AI has transformed the competitive landscape of no-code. Airtable, Softr, and Baserow have all made rapid advances in the past several months. Glide’s attitude towards AI has not kept up with the evolution of AI itself.

Specifically, Glide managed AI does not let us choose the model being used. As the models improve accuracy and significantly reduce cost, we have no idea what model is being used. The cost has also remained stagnant despite the models’ pricing reductions. Most no-code developers are AI conscious and have a mature understanding of the technology and its current capabilities. Airtable and Baserow allow creators to select the model and pay for the model’s pricing. The cost of the AI is then reflective of the actual cost. Advancements in models immediately improve the creator’s AI-based functions. The only current workaround in Glide is to send an HTTPS request directly to an external AI provider or use the OpenAI integration. This results in additional costly updates as well. Airtable, Baserow, and Softr do not charge per flow. The outcome is easier-to-use AI workflows for a fraction of the cost of Glide. As a result, I have been bringing many of my automations outside of Glide by using n8n to reduce these costs.

Complacency is the enemy of the future. A better UI alone will not give Glide the necessary advantage to compete. Transparent managed AI without unfair per-update pricing per flow may cost Glide some immediate revenue. However, Glide must be competitively priced to stay in the game.

Don’t lose sight of the future by staring at the bank.

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Interesting take. I have always viewed Glide as the Canva of making progressive web apps, not the Photoshop. Very powerful, usable by most people who can use a computer, with limited customization (this is a strength).

I agree with you that model choice and even tweaking model settings can be important to some. That’s not, however, what most do I don’t think. Tweaking settings is not the spirit of Glide (in my view). And beyond the spirit, personally that’s not what I would want. I enjoy Glide because Glide makes choices for me that I either don’t want to make or couldn’t make.

Cost is a separate discussion, and of course relevant to businesses if they are to leverage AI inside their Glide apps all the while keeping their expenses under control. I would think that when the AI-based feature brings tremendous value and isn’t simply a gimmick, then cost isn’t that much of an issue. That has been my experience. If I recall correctly, one can also cap the budget on additional updates.

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