🧠 Lessons From Building 5 AI Tools in 5 Months

Between March and August 2025, I built and launched five different AI-powered tools under the MayR Labs umbrella:

1. PrepAI – for WAEC, NECO, and JAMB prep
2. QuizWise – a quiz app for techies
3. ContentForge – AI content creation across formats
4. LearnFlow – AI-enhanced mini games
5. LexA.I – legal enquiry assistant

Each tool had its own challenges, audience, and architecture. But after 5 builds in 5 months, I’ve racked up some scars — and a few solid lessons.

⚒️ 1. AI Is Powerful, But It’s Not the Product

Slapping GPT-4 or any LLM into your app doesn’t make it valuable. People don’t care that it’s AI — they care that it helps them do something better or faster.

Lesson: Always build around use case, not the model.

🚀 2. Speed > Perfection (But Not at the Cost of Clarity)

Shipping fast works. I launched most tools within 1–2 weeks. But every time I cut corners on onboarding or user flow, I paid the price in confused users.

Lesson: Launch fast, but don’t skip clarity. A polished “why” page beats a perfect UI.

🧪 3. Users Lie — But Behaviour Doesn’t

Early users will say they “love it” or “will use it later.” But only real behaviour matters.

Lesson: Watch what people actually do — not what they say they’ll do. Track drop-offs. See where they click. Numbers never lie.

🎯 4. Niche Beats General, Every Time

ContentForge (a general AI writing tool) struggled to retain users. But PrepAI (targeted at Nigerian students) got instant traction.

Lesson: The narrower the niche, the faster the adoption. Specific > clever.

🤝 5. Build Trust Before You Monetise

With LexA.I, legal info is sensitive. I realised people are sceptical of AI touching anything "legal." Building a simple disclaimer page and clearly stating “non-binding guidance only” increased trust dramatically.

Lesson: In trust-sensitive spaces, transparency builds confidence.

🛠️ 6. Internal Tools Make External Products Easier

By the time I built the third product, I started extracting common logic — from AI wrapper functions to shared components. That birthed mayrlabs-core.

Lesson: Building reusable internal packages early saves insane amounts of time later.

💡 7. People Respect Execution, Not Just Ideas

Most people won’t care about your vision — until you show them a working product.

Lesson: Don’t pitch slides. Ship apps.

🔄 Bonus: Everything Is Reusable

One model. Multiple wrappers. The LLMs don’t change — your prompt engineering, UI, and value layer do.

Lesson: The real game is in wrapping the AI in the right context for the right user.

📦 Final Thoughts

Building 5 AI tools in 5 months taught me more than a year of overthinking ever would. I shipped. I failed. I iterated. I learned.

And here’s the truth:

AI isn’t a silver bullet — but it’s a damn powerful hammer if you’re solving the right problem.

If you’re thinking about launching your own AI tool, start scrappy. Focus small. Build in public. And listen more than you talk.

The future belongs to those who build, not those who wait for perfect.

— Mayor Founder, MayR Labs