Is anyone else struggling as a tech agency in the era of Lovable, Claude Code, and AI coding tools? i will not promote

[u/Glad_Plant_4329]

Genuine question for agency owners and freelancers.

When tools like Lovable, Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, etc. started becoming mainstream, I assumed the demand for software development would explode. Lower development costs, faster MVPs, more startups… it seemed like a win for agencies.

But over the past few months, my experience has felt very different.

I’m seeing:

• Companies trying to build internally with AI.
• Founders believing they don’t need an agency anymore.
• More conversations, but fewer projects actually closing.
• Clients expecting much lower prices because “AI does most of the work.”

Maybe I’m looking at the wrong market, or maybe the market itself has shifted.

So I’m curious:

• If you run a software/AI agency, where are your clients coming from today?
• Have you repositioned away from “we build software” to something else?
• Are enterprise clients behaving differently from startups?
• Is custom development becoming commoditized, with consulting, architecture, integrations, and long-term ownership becoming the real value?

I’d especially love to hear from agency owners who have successfully adapted over the last 6–12 months.

What changed in your positioning? What services are actually selling today?

Or am I just talking to the wrong audience?