Are you paying $29/month for a prompt with nice packaging?

Are you paying $29/month for a prompt with nice packaging?

I subscribed to an AI writing tool for X last month, used it for a week.

Then asked ChatGPT to reverse-engineer the system prompt.

It worked.

Cancelled my subscription.

Most AI apps aren't even real products.

They're one good prompt, a clean interface, and good branding.

That's it, that's the whole thing.

I'm not saying packaging has no value.

I'll probably launch one AI product soon! :))

A nice interface saves time.

Templates make things faster.

A polished look feels more professional.

But what makes these tools different from each other?

Sometimes just a few paragraphs of instructions.

Instructions that anyone could write with some practice.

This pattern shows up everywhere.

Email helpers, content writers, meeting note tools, social media assistants.

Take away the pretty interface and you find a system prompt doing all the heavy stuff.

The indie hackers know this.

That's why they focus so much on branding and user experience.

The prompt itself isn't hard to copy.

Actually, once you get good at prompting, you realize you can build most of these tools in 30 minutes of work.

You stop chasing the next app and start building your own solutions.

Try this exercise and see how they work behind the scenes.

That knowledge keeps paying off.

What's an AI app you replaced with your own prompt?