As AI lowers technical barriers in website building by making coding cheap and accessible, where does this leave businesses building for an online audience?

During a fireside chat on the inaugural day of TechSparks 2026 on October 13, Shradha Sharma, Founder and CEO of YourStory and The Bharat Project spoke with Auksė Žirgulė, VP of Product at Hostinger about the changing customer expectations as AI takes over the bulk of software building.

Žirgulė highlighted on that experimentation is now the key to building customer experience. "I’ve noticed that their [customer] questions have become more complex. Earlier, the focus was on building a product. Now, customers are asking questions such as: “The market is saturated, and there are already so many products. What should I do next? How do I attract customers? How do I drive traffic?”

"They’re asking more fundamental business questions rather than simply asking how to build something," she added.

As AI makes building now easier, Žirgulė noted that innovation still remains the key.

"You can build anything, but if you don’t know what problem you’re solving, what’s the point? Founders need to understand the problem they’re addressing and test their products as early as possible. The second factor is innovation. There are so many products in the market that you need to find ways to stand out."

Žirgulė drove the point home using Apple as an example. "Apple didn’t invent the mobile phone or the touchscreen. What it did was deliver an exceptional customer experience. We sometimes become so focused on building products and watching our competitors that we forget to look for new ways to solve problems.

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