[Soerensen]

I think you are asking the wrong question. AI has not replaced Excel, but it has replaced the need for me to hire developers to build features.

I am a non-technical founder (background in growth/marketing). Two years ago, building a production web application required either (1) learning to code for months/years, (2) hiring engineers at $150-200K/year, or (3) outsourcing to contractors and praying.

None of those options were viable for me to validate an idea quickly.

With Cursor, v0, and similar tools, I built our entire frontend in production. Not a prototype, not an MVP in the old sense, but actual production code serving real customers. Features that would have cost $5-10K to spec and outsource, I can now build in an afternoon.

The tools did not "replace Excel" or any specific application. What they replaced was my dependency on other people to execute technical work. That is a much more profound shift than feature replacement.

The comparison to traditional applications is a category error. AI is not competing with Excel. It is competing with the labor market.