I Got So Busy Building with AI, I Took My Eye off Growing the Business

Net Age CEO Göran Giertz on the excitement of building things yourself—and knowing when to step away from the screen.

After 29 years of working online, I found myself doing something I had spent much of my career asking other people to do. I was building software.

I could describe an idea, ask AI to create it and watch it take shape. Then I could change it, add something else and try again. Things that would normally have involved conversations with developers and designers were suddenly happening in front of me.

I loved it.

I spent evenings, Saturdays and Sundays building. There was always another idea worth trying, another useful feature or another small change that seemed too close to finished to leave alone.

Our business continued running and growing. Our team continued looking after clients and helping them grow their businesses and brands. But while that work carried on, my own attention had shifted.

I was spending less time meeting potential customers and bringing new business into Net Age. I was too busy discovering how much I could build.

That is the experience I want to share with other business owners. AI gave me a valuable new capability. It also gave me something compelling enough to pull me away from work that needed my attention.

Suddenly, I Could Make the Things I Had Imagined

For years, I had worked with developers to turn ideas into technology. I understood what I wanted a system to do, why it mattered and how a customer might use it. Bringing that idea to life meant working with people who had the skills to build it.

Then I started vibe coding: describing what I wanted to an AI tool and using the code it produced to create and change software.

The first attraction was freedom. I did not have to wait to explore every idea. I could start trying something myself and see whether it had potential.

For someone who has spent decades thinking about technology, that is exciting. The list of things you would like to create does not get shorter when you discover a new way to build them. It gets longer.

One useful result leads to another question. Could it also do this? Could we make that process easier? What if we connected these two things?

Before long, I was finding more work for myself every time I finished something.

The Hard Part Was Putting It Down

It would be easy to describe those hours as wasted time, but that would not be true. We were creating technology that could help our business. I was learning things that would influence what we built next.

That made it easier to keep going.

When you are working on something useful, you can always find a reason to give it another hour. You are making progress. You can see the result. You know what you want to try next.

Winning new business has a different rhythm. It involves conversations, relationships and follow-ups. The result may come later, and you do not always know which conversation will lead somewhere.

Building gave me immediate feedback. I asked for something and something happened. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it needed fixing. Either way, there was a clear next action waiting for me.

I became absorbed in that cycle. The amount I could create was exciting enough that I spent far more time doing it than I had originally intended.

The question I was asking most often was what I could build next. I needed to spend more time asking what else needed me.

Nothing Had to Fall Apart for There to Be a Cost

Our clients were still being supported. Our team was still doing its work. Net Age was still moving forward.

The change was in how I spent my time.

Under normal circumstances, more of my attention would have gone towards meeting new people, discussing opportunities and acquiring customers. Instead, I was spending those hours learning and building.

There was no dramatic moment when the business stopped. That is why this kind of shift can be easy to miss. The work in front of you feels worthwhile, and the rest of the business appears to be carrying on.

But a business can be doing well while its owner gives less attention to something important.

I cannot point to every conversation I would have had or every opportunity that might have followed. I can recognise that I was doing less of the work that would usually create those opportunities.

That is the opportunity cost in this story: the things you are not doing while you are busy doing something else. You do not need to put a rand figure against it to take it seriously.

For me, the question became whether I was giving building the right amount of time, or simply as much time as I wanted to give it.

“it’s Done” Did Not Always Mean I Was Finished

Another part of the experience made that time harder to control.

The AI would tell me something was done. I would look at it and think it was working. Then I would try something else and discover that there was more to do.

Sometimes the problem was visible. Sometimes it only became clear when our developers looked underneath what I had built. Security, database structure and SEO were among the areas that needed proper attention.

I was fortunate to have an experienced development team involved. They could help assess things that a convincing screen did not explain.

The lesson was simple: getting something to appear and getting it ready to rely on are not always the same job.

For a business owner trying to fit this around everything else, that matters. You think you are a short distance from finishing, so you keep going. Then another issue appears, followed by another improvement.

The time you planned to spend elsewhere gets pushed back again.

It is a good reason to bring the right people into the work early. You can still enjoy creating things without personally carrying every part of the build.

We Built Things That Matter to Our Future

I do not regret discovering what AI could help us create.

Net Age is a technology-driven business. The capabilities we have been building are part of how we want to strengthen our position in 2027 and beyond. Learning what these tools can and cannot do is relevant to our work.

There is real value in that experience.

But the value of a project does not automatically mean the CEO should spend so much of their time inside it. A worthwhile build still needs a sensible place in the business and the right people working on it.

That is the balance I had to recognise. I could contribute ideas, explain the business need and help decide what mattered without becoming absorbed in every adjustment.

The goal was never to stop building. It was to make sure building did not keep taking attention away from the other work I was there to do.

For another business owner, the balance may be different. The useful question is what your business needs from you, rather than how much the technology now allows you to do.

I Recognise the Excitement in Other Business Owners

Clients and people around us have been telling us about tools they are building with AI. I recognise the enthusiasm because I have felt it myself.

They have an idea, discover they can make it and start spending time getting it right. A project that sounded small develops into something much more involved.

Some of those tools may be excellent investments. An owner can have a clear understanding of a problem that makes them well placed to explore a solution.

But understanding the problem does not mean they need to do all the work themselves.

I would encourage anyone in that position to pause occasionally and look beyond the project. What has moved down the list since you started? What have you postponed because you wanted to finish one more thing?

You might decide the time is well spent. You might decide the project needs help, a smaller scope or a break.

The important part is making that decision deliberately, before building becomes the default use of every spare hour.

Give the Project a Boundary

If I were speaking to an owner just starting out, I would suggest deciding what the first useful version actually needs to do.

Keep that description simple. What problem will it solve? Who will use it? How will you know it helps?

Then give your own involvement a limit. Set aside time to explore the idea while protecting the work that remains your responsibility. If your role is to bring in business, keep time for those conversations instead of assuming you will return to them when the tool is finished.

Write down new ideas without making every one part of the current build. A feature can be worthwhile and still belong later.

Find someone who can review the work and help you decide what is needed before real users depend on it. That support can also make it easier to hand over parts of the project.

Finally, stop occasionally to assess the result. Is the tool helping with the original problem? Is the time you are spending still justified? Would someone else be better placed to take the next step?

These are ordinary business questions. The excitement of AI does not make them less relevant.

Being Able to Do It Yourself Is Only Part of the Decision

The experience has changed how I think about access to technology.

Being able to create something yourself is powerful. It can open possibilities, help you test an idea and give you a better understanding of what you want to build.

It can also become difficult to put down.

I understand why an entrepreneur would get pulled into it. We are used to spotting possibilities and wanting to make them happen. A tool that turns those possibilities into something visible is naturally appealing.

But I also know what it felt like to look up and realise how much of my attention had moved.

Our business was still growing. We had built valuable technology. At the same time, I had spent less time doing the work that would normally help us win new customers.

All of those things were true.

My advice is to explore AI with enthusiasm and keep asking where you are most useful to your business. Give yourself room to learn, involve the right people and protect the responsibilities that should not drift.

If you are building a tool and need help deciding what it needs next, speak to Net Age. We understand the excitement, and we understand why the work can become more involved than it first appears.

Just because you can build it yourself does not mean it should take so much of your time.