I started learning programming in the era of GW-BASIC — when every line of code needed a line number.
Over the last 15 years in the IT industry, I’ve worked across development, design, automation, scraping systems, AI-driven workflows, and large-scale data projects. I started as an intern, moved into Team Lead roles, and later became a Product Lead.
As a freelancer and consultant, I’ve had the opportunity to work with clients from multiple industries — from coffee businesses and insurance companies to AI automation and enterprise-level scraping systems. One principle I always followed was simple:
One client at a time. Long-term relationships over short-term projects.
Some of those collaborations lasted for years.
Recently, one of my long-term engagements came to an end after almost 2.5 years. The client now uses AI tools to automate many of the tasks I once handled manually. Instead of seeing that as a setback, I saw it as a wake-up call — and an opportunity to sharpen my skills again.
That realization led me to something important:
Coding is no longer the hardest part of building a product.
Today, development is probably less than 5% of the real challenge.
AI can now generate apps, websites, dashboards, APIs, automations, and even entire MVPs in hours. Apple and Google Play stores are already flooded with AI-generated applications. Building software is becoming easier every day.
But there’s something AI still cannot replace easily:
1. Solving Real Problems
Most products today are clones of existing solutions.
Another task manager.
Another AI wrapper.
Another delivery app.
Another chatbot.
Very few products are solving actual pain points.
The real skill is identifying problems worth solving and building meaningful solutions around them.
2. Marketing & Positioning
Even the best product fails if nobody understands it, discovers it, or trusts it.
Technical skills alone are no longer enough.
You must understand:
Marketing
Positioning
Communication
User psychology
Distribution
Community building
Personal branding
Because in today’s market:
Visibility often beats complexity.
I’ve seen incredibly advanced projects fail because they solved no real problem.
And I’ve seen simple tools succeed because they solved one painful problem extremely well.
The future belongs to people who can combine:
Technical execution
Problem-solving ability
Business understanding
Communication
AI leverage
Marketing strategy
The developers who will thrive in the AI era are not just coders.
They are builders, consultants, strategists, and problem solvers.
And honestly, this shift is exciting.
Because technology was never the final goal.
Solving human problems was.
#AI #SoftwareDevelopment #Automation #ProductDevelopment #Entrepreneurship #Consulting #ArtificialIntelligence #Startups #DigitalTransformation #Freelancing #Innovation #Marketing #TechLeadership #ProblemSolving #SaaS #PersonalBranding #Developers
The Missing Skill in the AI Era
You might receive an email regarding last date to update your app to Google Play Billing Library 4 or later by Nov 1, you might also see a similar reminder alert at android developer site when you visit Google Play billing system which says:
Reminder: Starting on August 2, 2022, all new apps must use Billing Library version 4 or newer. By November 1, 2022, all updates to existing apps must use Billing Library version 4 or newer. Learn more.
So one of main issue the developer might face when he is managing multiple clients and account with multiple apps is find out exactly which app is going to effect, because i several of my clients ed me in panic after getting this email as they were unable to find which app is causing the issue. That is why i am writing this post to help similar people.
Google had announced back in August 2022, about deprecation the Play Store Billing version 3, and instructs developers to update their Billing Library by 1 November, 2022.
Contents
- Find depreciated Applications
- Frequently Asked Questions
Find depreciated Applications
I am going to explain step-by-step instruction how you can find app that are using old Google Play Billing or later than 4 by what i mean. Our goal here is to find apk or app that is triggering that warning.
Methods
- Find through Android Studio
- Find in Google Play Console
1- Find through Android Studio
Open your android project in Android Studio, and Open your project AndroidManifest.xml file and search for permission com.android.vending.BILLING also open buid.gradle for your project and make sure version for Play Billing Library should be greater than 4.0.0
You have to repeat this procedure for every application that you have published on Google Play Store to find out depreciated Google Play Billing Library
2- Find through Google Play Console
To find application that is using billing you have to access your Google Play Store account then have to do the below actions for all apps one by one to find the effected app.
- Select App Apps from the left menu
- Select App that you want to Check
- Once you are in App Dashboard select App Bundle Explorer
- Choose Active release of your application by clicking the -> arrow button
- In the detail tab scroll down to the permissions and click Show Detail option which have chevron down icon with it.
- In permission list check for com.android.vending.BILLING and if you find it, thats means might be the app you are searching for.
NOTE: if you have multiple apps using Play Store Billing Library you might repeat the above procedure to find that app as well.
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: Which is the version of Play Billing Library is expiring?
Answer: Play Billing Library 3
Question: When Google announced depreciation of Play Billing Library 3?
Answer: On 02, August 2022
Question: Until when i can upgrade Play Billing Library 3?
Answer: 01 November, 2022
Question: How long support is provided for Play Billing Library?
Answer: For major released Google continue support it for 2 years
Question: What are current Play Billing Library version that i upgrade to?
Answer: You can upgrade your Play Billing Library 4 or 5 . Version 4 will be supported for up-to 2024 and version 5 till 2025