What started as a catchy tech slogan has now inspired a bold vision — a future where anyone can turn an app idea into reality without touching a single line of code.
Breaking Down the Coding Barrier
Christel Buchanan, founder and CEO of ChatAndBuild, isn’t interested in limiting innovation to Silicon Valley insiders. She wants a grandmother in Thailand or a retiree in Shanghai to be able to build apps just as easily as a Stanford-trained programmer.
In her words, “Why is that only someone with a Stanford [computer science] degree in the Bay Area gets to build something and then walk away as a multibillionaire?”
Her own father, who speaks Mandarin and has no formal programming background, has already created two games — a mahjong app and a Pac-Man clone — using her platform. For Buchanan, that was a turning point.
Chat, Build, Launch — No Coding Required
ChatAndBuild operates on a simple but striking idea: if you can describe it, you can make it.
Users type prompts like “create an AI-powered horoscope quiz” or “build me a to-do list app,” and the platform generates a fully functional product in response. The process removes the friction of learning programming languages, managing code packages, or setting up dependencies.
Buchanan compares it to the social media shift a decade ago. “If you think about social media, it empowered anyone to take a photo and share it,” she said. “This is going to be the next wave.”
A Vision to Multiply Coders by the Millions
Right now, Buchanan estimates there are around 5 million coders worldwide. Her ambition? To see that number jump to 1 billion.
She believes AI will do for coding what smartphones did for photography — make it accessible to the masses. And with 150,000 users already creating their own tech products on ChatAndBuild, momentum is building fast.
It’s worth noting that the platform only launched to the public in May of this year.
From Twitter to Tech Founder
Buchanan’s mission is rooted in her own unconventional career path. She walked away from a prestigious, government-sponsored scholarship after just one year at university. That leap of faith landed her at Twitter, where she eventually became the regional head of content for Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
Later, she worked at Brandwatch, a social analytics firm, and blockchain platform Zilliqa. Through it all, her love for technology deepened. “For me, technology was the great equalizer,” she said. “It lifted me.”
Big Opportunities, Big Questions
But alongside the excitement, Buchanan sees potential challenges ahead — particularly around ownership of AI-generated work. She’s concerned that current generative AI models may store user data in ways that strip individuals of intellectual property rights.
“This is something we need to take note about,” she said. Her answer is a concept she’s calling “non-fungible agents” (NFAs) — decentralized, unique AI entities that users can train, trade, and truly own.
She predicts this debate over data ownership will grow rapidly in the next two years, potentially changing the tone of AI conversations entirely.
No Interface? No Problem — For Now
For all its promise, AI still lacks a standard user-friendly interface. “Right now, there is no graphical user interface for AI,” Buchanan pointed out. “It’s a very bare bones kind of thing.”
What that operating system will look like remains an open question — and, to her, an exciting one. If her platform succeeds, it may play a big part in shaping that future.
