TL;DR
- Software is entering an inflation. A single developer used AI to build open-source look-alikes of seven Adobe apps, and new tools let AI agents look inside closed applications.
- When anyone can copy features, features stop being an advantage. What can’t be cloned with one command is the brand, the audience, the data and people’s habits.
- Marketing as a content factory is losing value. Marketing as trust, positioning and a direct channel to the right people is becoming the most expensive asset.
- Loyal beats large. 200 of the right people who trust you are worth more than a million followers who don’t.
- Below: what happened, who wins in a world of cloned software, what dies, and six questions to test your own advantage.
A few weeks ago, a developer released free, open-source look-alikes of Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere and four more Adobe apps, built with AI. Adobe spent more than three decades and thousands of engineers on Photoshop alone.
The clones are glitchy and far from replacing the originals. But they raise a question I can’t stop thinking about: if software can be copied this easily, isn’t the real battle from now on about marketing?
This is a theory, not a verdict. Let’s think it through.
The short answer
What actually happened
- The clonesDeveloper Brandon Thomas released ArtCraft, open-source apps inspired by Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, After Effects, InDesign and Acrobat Pro, written in Rust with the help of Claude. Testers say they feel familiar, but are glitchy and in early alpha.
- The X-rayAn open-source tool called REA, Reverse Engineer Anything, lets coding agents such as Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or Gemini inspect an application down to the binary level and explain how a feature works.
- What it meansBuilding something similar no longer needs years of engineering experience, at least for open platforms like computers, Android and the browser.
Why code stops being a moat
For years, the barrier to turning a great idea into a business was code. “I don’t know how to program, I need a technical co-founder.” In many companies, a handful of people understand a critical piece of code so well that nobody can replace them. The source code was like a secret recipe worth millions.
When that recipe can be read and rebuilt by an AI agent, two things happen:
| Before | Now | |
|---|---|---|
| Features | Rare and expensive to build | Abundant: 500 free alternatives can appear for one app |
| The scarce resource | Engineering talent | People's attention and trust |
| The noise | Limited by who could build | Everyone builds, launches and advertises |
| What makes you different | What your product can do | Who trusts you and how they find you |
We spend most of our time in two or three big platforms, while the number of apps and sites keeps exploding. Attracting and keeping an audience gets harder and more expensive every year.
What can’t be cloned
A strong brand
For many professionals, Adobe still means "the tool for professionals"Designers who refused to accept Canva as real design show how strong that habit is
Hard to copy
Habits and data
People stay for their files, history, sync and integrations, not for the interfacePlus courses, communities, plugins: a whole economy around one product
Hard to copy
A loyal audience
A direct channel to people who listenCommunity, newsletter, YouTube, podcast
Hard to copy
Accountability
No serious company installs an anonymous clone for sensitive financial workBusinesses pay for guarantees, support, compliance and security
Hard to copy
Features
What the software can doIncreasingly easy to replicate
Easy to copy
Who sells when everyone can build
Not the one who wrote the most elegant code, but the one with a direct channel to customers and their trust.
You can clone the interface in an afternoon. You can't clone millions of people's files, workflows and years of muscle memory.
When AI-generated products are everywhere, trust moves from faceless products to real experts and creators who put their name behind what they make.
Most people don't want to open a terminal and maintain their own software. They will pay for a tested solution that works in one click.
People buy membership, not a tool: access to expertise, closed networks, shared experience and status.
When there are 500 free clones of one tool, someone has to test which one is safe and reliable. Some expect "software curator" to become a real profession.
What dies and what grows
| Likely to shrink | Likely to grow |
|---|---|
| Small paid tools for one task, like PDF converters or background removal, which anyone can soon build for themselves | Ready, tested, supported solutions sold as convenience |
| Marketing as a factory: hours billed for generic articles, banners and posts | Strategy, positioning, taste and the ability to say something meaningful |
| Big follower counts with no trust | Small, loyal audiences that act on recommendations |
| Faceless corporate communication | Personal brands: real people, names and voices |
| Easy-to-read code | Protection techniques that make code harder for AI to analyze |
Yes, part of marketing is dying. A team of seven producing visuals and copy can now be one person with a few AI agents. That part loses value the same way code does. But that’s marketing as routine, and routine is losing value in every industry.
The new meaning of marketing
When producing code and content becomes almost free, the internet fills with endless noise and identical products. A perfect clone that nobody knows about and nobody trusts is worth zero.
That’s why I keep advising every business I work with: show your face, speak in the first person, share your experience. People are tired of anonymous profiles. The anonymity was part of the charm of the early web. Today, with ads on every page and a new AI headline every week, people are looking for something authentic.
I’ll be honest: recording videos is still uncomfortable for me. Hearing my own voice and talking to a camera feels unnatural. But I know that somewhere there might be one person for whom it is useful, and that is reason enough.
A note to technical experts
Many people around me, close friends among them, have brilliant technical skills and believe that if you build the perfect product, the world will find it. That was never true. In the new reality, it’s impossible.
| Instead of | Try |
|---|---|
| Talking about features, code and how elegant the app is | Talking about the problem it solves, in your customer's words |
| Building in silence for months | Building in public: share progress and collect feedback from the community |
| Waiting to be discovered | Packaging your skills as a clear product and positioning it |
| Leaving marketing to "later" | Learning the basics now. Nobody needs you to become an influencer. |
Distribution no longer just supports the product. It is part of the product. Technology without an audience isn’t a business.
Test your advantage
Six questions to answer honestly
In a world of copies, trust is also what decides whether AI assistants recommend you or a competitor. If you want to see where you stand, the AI Visibility Audit shows how ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity describe your brand.
My take
Software is going through hyperinflation. Features multiply endlessly, while human attention stays strictly limited. When the market is flooded with working solutions, the winner isn’t the one with the cleanest algorithm, but the one who owns the audience’s attention and trust.
The scarcest talent in tech used to be programming well. Increasingly, it is the ability to bring people together.
This is an invitation to discuss, not a final answer. What would you add, and where do you disagree? I’d like to hear it.
For a neutral overview of the tools and what they mean for software companies, read AI-Built Software Clones and Reverse Engineering Tools, Explained on Egorithms.
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