Why you shouldn’t vibe code your new market entry

Last week, I had my first ever experience of Latitude59. The conference had been on my radar for a while, especially considering the impressive number of innovative startups, scaleups and SMEs coming out of Estonia and the surrounding regions. And I was not disappointed. Latitude59 gathered a large number of inspiring businesses and speakers, not only from the Nordics and Baltics, but from all across Europe.

One of my absolute highlights was Ailish McLaughlin’s session on The bits you shouldn’t vibe code, where she dived into the risks and potential losses of outsourcing tasks to AI. Recognising the massive opportunities AI provides in terms of time-saving and efficiency, she emphasized that overusing these services can come at hidden and often unconscious costs. These would not only decrease the quality of your product, but also the quality of your skillset. But, as these changes happen gradually over time, they can be hard to spot.

Guilty as charged, I find myself delegating more and more of my admin work to AI, but how tempting isn’t it to outsource your boring everyday tasks when you know there’s an AI tool that can do it for you, both quicker and without the hassle of doing it yourself? Nowadays, I can barely remember how I used to be able to take notes during meetings, pull up a report quickly or compare flight options manually.

Therefore, it was a much-needed reminder that doing this will not only affect the result of what I produce (e.g. making an article sound more generic than personal and inspiring), but also my personal skills and competencies (such as my memory and creativity).

So, what’s the solution? According to Ailish, you can decrease the risk of outsourcing things you shouldn’t be outsourcing by asking yourself three questions:

1. Is this my differentiator? (Is the task or product essential to my skillset or business?)
2. What do I lose if I outsource it? (Will this worsen my memory, creative abilities etc?)
3. Does it matter if it looks generic? (Would a more creative version be more efficient?)

If you can truthfully answer no to all the above, go ahead and delegate. It will probably not make a massive difference whether the content has been put together by an AI tool, or by yourself. If not, you’d be better off doing it yourself, it will be worth the extra effort.

But how about using AI to help you with your international expansion? Surely, you must be saving both time and money by letting AI help you when setting up your business in the UK. The short answer is: probably not.

Why do I say that? Despite the fact that AI can help you do some research when looking into your potential new market, there is clear evidence that the answers and advice provided by AI are far from perfect. Hence, I’d like to add a fourth question to the ones mentioned above: “What is the potential cost if AI is wrong?”. When it comes to crucial parts of your business development, such as international expansion, getting things wrong can be must more costly than what you’re hoping to save by taking the easy route. Not only could it lead to massive fines and major delays in your set up, but it could significantly damage the reputation of your business.

That’s why Goodwille take pride in making sure our clients are set up in the UK in a way that is safe, structured and efficient. We know that the time and effort one might save using AI comes nowhere near the costs of potential mistakes.

With that lesson learned, I’m saying a brief (slightly reluctant) goodbye to my AI overuse and look forward to diving back into my creativity.

*This article was written by Claude.

Just kidding.

Hello, thanks for checking out our post! Would you like more recommendations and handy tips for your UK business or maybe have a chat with us about this topic?

Message Us

Name*

Email*

Company*

Message*