In Brief
SmarterX CEO Paul Roetzer used Claude to build dozens of working prototypes for a new AI assessment platform, though he is not a software developer.
The experience changed what he could build himself and how he thinks about the work leaders and their teams will do.
What Happened
SmarterX founder and CEO Paul Roetzer spent an estimated 300-400 hours developing assessments and turning them into working web prototypes with Claude. He then handed those prototypes to a software development team, which was targeting roughly 30 days to turn them into production software.
The project is AI Score by SmarterX, a forthcoming free platform that helps businesses and individuals assess their AI transformation progess and identify where to improve. Roetzer began work on the assessments in February 2026 after repeated conversations with executives who struggled to define AI transformation and measure their progress.
He had built assessment tools before, during his years running a marketing consulting firm. This time, AI let him create functioning versions of the product himself before bringing in developers.
Roetzer walked through that process and its implications for the future of work on Episode 243 of The Artificial Intelligence Show.
The Key Numbers
300-400 - Hours Roetzer estimated he spent developing the assessments and prototypes
Dozens - Prototype versions Roetzer built with Claude
$100,000-$250,000 - Roetzer's estimated development savings from prototyping the platform himself
30 - Target timeline in days from his prototypes to production software
2 - Assessments in the platform, one for businesses and one for individuals
Why AI Changes What a Business Leader Can Build
The work started with a problem he understood. Roetzer had seen companies give employees AI tools with little context for how to use them. He wanted a way to establish a starting point, identify weaknesses, and guide learning and organizational change. "So AI Score is based on the idea that transformation requires deep change management," he says.
His earlier consulting work supplied a useful foundation. He had created an assessment of marketing talent, technology, and strategy, then used the results to shape client plans. He had also developed an earlier AI assessment for marketers. The new project extended that experience to businesses and individuals more broadly.
Claude let him turn the design into something that worked. Roetzer defined the assessments before asking AI to help build them. That included deciding what to measure: eight pillars for businesses and five for individuals.
"What I didn't have back when I built those other ones was AI that could help me build prototypes of these things," Roetzer says. He used Claude to turn his assessment work into functioning web pages. He initially worked mostly with Sonnet 4.6, then paid for extra credits to iterate with Fable 5 and 5.1.
The handoff to developers came after dozens of versions. Roetzer estimated that building the prototypes himself saved SmarterX between $100,000 and $250,000. He also believed the work would otherwise have taken at least twice as long. These are his estimates, and the 30-day production timeline is a target.
The process demanded hundreds of hours, which he described as the most time-intense project he has undertaken. It also let him take on work he previously could not do himself. Alongside the prototypes, he used his AI assistant to help develop material for bringing the product to market.
"It starts to change the way you think about how work is going to compress and how people that were leaders before are now going to be builders and they're going to be able to do a lot of the things."
— Paul Roetzer, founder and CEO of SmarterX on Episode 243 of The Artificial Intelligence Show
SmarterX Take
Roetzer's experience shows the value of pairing subject expertise with the ability to make an idea concrete. He knew the problem, had built assessments before, and could judge whether each version reflected what he intended. AI gave him another way to apply that knowledge.
For leaders considering a similar project, a useful first step is to prototype a tool that solves a problem they understand well. That gives colleagues and developers something to evaluate. The SmarterX example also preserves a clear role for a development team: turning an extensively revised prototype into software people can use.
What to Watch
The move from prototypes to public use is the next stage. Roetzer was conducting internal beta testing and expects the rollout to happen around MAICON in mid-October. The experience was also informing his thinking about team structures: how roles change when a leader can both design a product and build its first working versions.
Turning Individual AI Use Into Organizational Progress
Only 25% of respondents say their organization has reached the Scaling phase of AI adoption, according to the 2026 State of AI for Business Report. That phase means broad adoption accompanied by increasing efficiency and performance. Roetzer's experience offers one concrete example of the work behind that shift: applying AI to a real project, revising the results, and connecting individual effort with a team's production process.
Based on more than 2,100 responses from professionals across roles, functions, and industries, the report examines adoption, training, governance, and organizational readiness. Read the full report →
Mike Kaput
Mike Kaput is the Chief Content Officer at SmarterX and a leading voice on the application of AI in business. He is the co-author of Marketing Artificial Intelligence and co-host of The Artificial Intelligence Show podcast.