Builder.ai "automated" app development exposed as relying on humans

Claims by Indian start-up Engineer.ai that it had developed a highly automated, AI-enabled app development platform for small businesses was revealed to be far from the truth.

The Wall Street Journal found when talking to Engineer.ai (since renamed Builder.ai) employees and former employees that it used humans rather than AI to develop its app, and grossly inflated its marketing rhetoric to attract customers and investors. 

The company had aggressively trumped its 'human-assisted' AI services, with Engineer.ai founder and CEO Sachin Dev Duggal claiming that 82 percent of the work on the event’s app was done by AI in under an hour, and that human engineers worked for five weeks to finish the rest of it. 

Duggal responded to the WSJ report by saying the company had never claimed to offer 'automated software development'.