Summary
Matthew Berman argues that consumers are about to build their own software, and he explains what changed to make that possible. His starting point was a small frustration: after setting up a new PC, he found Adobe Acrobat bloated and pushy, so he had an AI agent build him a PDF reader instead.
He says three things have come together over the past month. Models are now good enough, with Opus 5.5 described as a turning point. They are cheap enough, as the token cost of building and maintaining software has dropped below the price of many subscriptions. And agents are autonomous enough to make the process easy. As a test, he asks models to clone Microsoft Excel. Earlier generations produced rough approximations, while the latest ones reproduce it end to end in roughly 90 minutes to a couple of hours, which he compares to the $180 standalone license or $7 to $10 monthly subscription.
Berman also highlights Artcraft, an open-source project that recreates the Adobe suite, including Photoshop and Premiere equivalents, by pointing AI at existing software and iterating until it matches. He predicts software costs trending toward zero and most software becoming effectively open source. The video also features a sponsored look at the Nvidia RTX Spark powered Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra.
📺 Source: Matthew Berman · Published November 03, 2026
🏷️ Format: Opinion Editorial
