Ferosh Jacob

Ferosh Jacob

Software engineering and AI leader focused on search, relevance, data science, and practical AI systems.

Software Scarcity

A series about how AI-assisted development changes software economics, making custom software practical for small businesses and local workflows.

Start Here

Start with the thesis article, then follow Rosa's story from website creation to AI chat and lightweight lead workflow automation.

Questions This Series Answers

  • What happens when software becomes cheap enough to adapt to a business?
  • Can small businesses afford AI-enabled software workflows?
  • How does a simple website become an operating system for customer acquisition?

Key Themes

  • Software economics
  • AI-assisted development
  • Small business software
  • Custom software
  • Workflow automation

Articles in This Series

  1. The End of Software Scarcity, Part 1: Why Software Can Adapt to the Business

    For decades, organizations adapted themselves to software because software was expensive to build and maintain. AI-assisted development may reverse that relationship, making it practical for software to adapt to the unique needs of individual organizations.

  2. The End of Software Scarcity, Part 2: Rosa's Story

    In my previous article, I argued that AI-assisted development may be bringing an end to software scarcity. This article tests that idea through a real-world project with a local small business owner.

  3. The End of Software Scarcity, Part 3: Rosa's Story — Website & AI Chat

    Building the website was easy. The more interesting question was whether a small business could afford an AI-powered customer experience with virtually no recurring software costs.

  4. The End of Software Scarcity, Part 4: Rosa's Story — Lead Workflow

    A website is only the front door. In this article, I explore how an AI-enabled conversation becomes part of a small operations system for leads, clients, jobs, reviews, videos, and ads.

  5. Software Is Getting Cheaper. But By How Much?

    I’ve spent months arguing AI is making software cheaper. So I went looking for the evidence, applied my own rule, and found something more interesting than a percentage: software purchasing power.

  6. The Developer's Job in Five Years: Conductor, Not Coder

    Coding is getting cheap, but the developer’s job doesn’t vanish — it moves upstream into definition and downstream into validation. Three testable hypotheses for the next five years, including the counterexample that should make you skeptical of all three.