As we prepare to launch the AI Strategy App, we wanted to share how we built it using Buzzy, inspired by Buzzy’s AI T-Shirt App case study and Your AI-Powered Stock Portfolio App: A No-Code Journey. Our goal was to create a tool that helps businesses, from SMBs to large enterprises, harness AI to address their strategic challenges.
The Spark of an Idea
During a conversation with a partner in Europe, I was struck by their remark: “With AI in Europe, there's a lot of talk and play, but not much real action.” This comment resonated with me, as I often see AI discussed more as a concept than a practical tool, especially outside large enterprises that can afford expensive consulting from firms like Gartner or Accenture.
With a background in computer science and a strong interest in AI, I was motivated to bridge this gap. I wanted to create an application that could help any business, regardless of size, leverage AI to solve real problems. This led to the idea of building an AI-powered app that generates tailored strategies, projects, and tasks based on the user’s specific business challenges.
Concept to Prototype in Minutes
Using Buzzy’s AI capabilities, I quickly generated a base application from a simple prompt. Our approach mirrored a previous project where we developed a stock portfolio app, but this time the user input would include business background and challenges. The AI would then generate a set of underlying strategies, projects, and tasks.
In just 30 minutes, we had a basic prototype ready. This allowed us to socialize the idea and gather initial feedback rapidly.
This was our initial prompt:
Create an application that allows users to create a AI Strategy.
A user creates an Organization when registering. An Organization has a name, logo, industry, number of employees, and info on “AI Tech” (checkboxes) they are already using, a list of up to 4 “Challenged” and “Other” info (rich text).
An Organization also has many Users and many Strategies.
A User has a Name, Role (admin/viewer), Email address, Profile picture.
Each Strategy has a name, Description, Objectives, many Projects.
Each Project has a name, objective, description and many Tasks.
Each Task has a name, due date, status ( not started, in progress, complete, deferred) and has many Notes.
A Note has Rich text and attachments.
This was the result after a few mins:
Building the High-Fidelity Version
For the high-fidelity version, our resident Figma expert, Dave, refined the Buzzy-generated design. The initial AI-generated interface worked as a quick MVP, but needed both functional and aesthetic refinement.
We went from Figma to Figjam to map out a more refined screen flow. This also helped us identify functional enhancements and integrations we might need - for instance adding an onboarding wizard to enhance the user experience, and working out where AI integration needed to happen to generate the AI strategy plans..
With our screen flows mapped out in more detail we could jump back into the AI-generated Figma file, and using the Buzzy AI toolkit could quickly modify the existing generated screens, or create whole new screen flows where needed. Note that at this point we were simply using the default 'Savory' dark theme from the Buzzy toolkit.
Some informal user-testing with friends and colleagues help us move towards a more custom aesthetic - moving to a lighter theme and custom colour palette, as well as more suitable typographic styles. Again, the Buzzy toolkit was invaluable here, as the theme styles and colours are defined by variables - which makes these changes incredibly easy and quick.
We then connected the app to a Lambda function with two main roles:
Multi-Tenant SaaS Functionality: We designed the app to support multiple organizations. Users can sign up, describe their business challenges, and set up their organization, adding members and admins. We used Buzzy’s hierarchical Org -> Team (TeamViewers) security model to ensure each organization’s data remained securely separated. We also allowed users to be part of multiple organizations.
Automated Strategy Creation: The Lambda function utilized the Buzzy API to add strategies, plans, and tasks based on user inputs.
Aside from the core functional considerations, we also had to include more static 'marketing' and user-oriented screens, such as FAQs, Support and Pricing pages. The publicly accessible home or landing page also had to encourage users to try the app and sign up. These pages weren't difficult to implement using Figma autolayouts and the Buzzy toolkit, but required a bit of iteration to get the content, imagery and layouts right - luckily, with the Buzzy plugin, we can publish changes directly from Figma to the working app.
Rapid Development and Iteration
Within a few days, we had a Version 1 of the AI Strategy App ready for feedback. We began testing it with a diverse group of users, including our Buzzy brain trust, friends, family, and even pets. We also sought feedback from Ned Moorfield, an AI strategist who helps organizations integrate AI into their operations, and another AI strategist who was initially skeptical about the app, fearing it might threaten his job. Personally, I disagree; it’s just a tool to make strategy more structured and scalable for organizations. We even posted about it on Reddit’s side hustle subreddit to gather additional insights.
This broad range of feedback was invaluable. We quickly learned that simply generating a list of tasks wasn’t enough. Users needed more integrated resources. This led us to plan and build a marketplace of tools, experts, events, and courses to support users in implementing their strategies.
We are also incorporated vector search to enhance our recommendation capabilities—stay tuned for updates on this feature and some follow on blog articles.
Adding Payments and Subscriptions
Although this project started as a side hustle, we needed to implement a subscription model as the final step.
There were two main reasons for this decision:
Generating Revenue: To be a genuine SaaS app, we need to have a revenue stream.
Managing Costs: We were concerned about the costs of running this project. As the founder of Buzzy, I understand how expensive AI API calls (such as those to OpenAI) can be. To mitigate this, we decided to place the AI features behind a paywall. If you believe it should be freemium or free, feel free to reach out if you’re interested in funding it. ;-)
To set this up, we used Stripe payment links, which call a web hook (an AWS Lambda function) upon successful payment. This web hook then calls the Buzzy API to mark the user as “paid.” It’s a straightforward process that helps us manage both revenue and operational costs effectively.
See it in action!
Summary and Next Steps
The AI Strategy Plan App was born from a desire to make AI practical for businesses of all sizes. Leveraging Buzzy's no-code platform, we quickly developed and iterated on our app, transforming initial ideas into a powerful tool for generating tailored strategies based on user inputs. Our journey from concept to a functional app highlights the potential of Buzzy to accelerate application development and foster innovation.
Next Steps:
Try the AI Strategy App: Experience firsthand how AI can assist your business in planning and executing effective strategies. Visit AI Strategy Plan to get started.
Explore Buzzy: Discover how Buzzy can empower you to build your own applications quickly and easily. Learn more and start your project at Buzzy.
By exploring these tools, you can begin to harness the power of AI for your organization and streamline your application development processes.
NEXT:
About Buzzy
Buzzy is an AI-powered no-code platform that simplifies and accelerates application development. Our experience with the AI Strategy App is a testament to how Buzzy enables rapid prototyping and iteration, allowing us to gather real user feedback early in the development process. Try Buzzy yourself!
About Ned
Ned Moorfield is an AI strategist who advises companies on leveraging AI effectively. Learn more about Ned on his LinkedIn profile.