Bubble finally released their highly anticipated feature "Bubble AI" in June! We've been playing around with it for about a month now and have some clear opinions on it. Here is our current verdict.
Bubble AI is a no-code AI assistant designed to help you work faster and more efficiently with Bubble.io. Similar to Softr or Glide, you can generate an initial version of a website or app from a simple prompt.
First of all: Bubble AI is still in the beta phase. This means that a lot will certainly still be happening. But at the moment it looks like this:
When you create a new app in Bubble, you will be informed in the editor that you can use the new Bubble AI to create a page. Here comes the first important point: Bubble AI can currently only create individual pages and not complex, multi-page apps. But that's not what Bubble claims. They only talk about websites and the so-called "Build Guides" - more on that later.
You can currently choose from 8 page types: Landingpage, Dashboard, Social Feed, Marketplace, User Profile, Product List, Settings and Sign-In Screen.
The setup is extremely simple and clear. You choose a category and get a field for your prompt, including instructions on how to prompt correctly if necessary. You can also include style variables. This can be, for example, the design of your brand, which you have previously defined.
The page is then ready in around 30-60 seconds. The designs are clean, modern and really well done. They are also responsive, which is extremely helpful. Everything is clearly and neatly named in the element tree. Workflows are already created for all clickable elements - buttons or icons. This saves you hours or even days of work. Thumbs up for that!
The workflows are still rudimentary. Some are created, but what happens afterwards is up to you. For example, a workflow was created for the Like button in my social media test app, but what happens after clicking is not further defined. However, I think this should actually be clear.
The AI also does not create a data structure or tables, even if you explicitly request it in the prompt. Creating a logical and performant data structure is a challenge that even experienced no-code developers struggle with - and apparently so does the AI.
Another disadvantage: Bubble AI only creates individual pages. For a complete web app, you have to re-prompt each page, which makes design consistency more difficult. Style variables can help a little here.
Bubble has another AI feature on offer: the "Build Guide". This also starts with a text prompt. Instead of pre-building your app, the AI creates a step-by-step guide on how to build what you want. A kind of IKEA guide for your web app, only without pictures and missing screws. The guide explains which visual elements you should build, which workflows go with them and even which data types you need.
The idea behind the Build Guide is really smart. Other no-code tools don't have anything like this. This feature is especially useful for those who are new to Bubble. Instead of simply pre-building a page that you then have to somehow understand, you build it yourself with support. This is great for getting started, especially when it comes to the necessary data types and fields.
The instructions are still very general and superficial. There are no detailed explanations of the individual steps. For example, the necessary relationships between the data are not mentioned. Even when it comes to design, the AI only tells you what you should build, but not how best to do it. It's a bit like telling a novice driver where to go and to watch out for pedestrians without explaining how to change gear.
It feels like the Build Guide offers no more than what ChatGPT would say, but with a better and clearer interface. At least with ChatGPT you can ask questions and get more information. This is currently not possible with Bubble.
Compared to its no-code competitors, Bubble has taken quite a long time with this release. Softr released their AI assistant in October last year, Glide released their AI App Designer almost exactly a year ago and Flutterflow even in March 2023. In our opinion, Bubble AI still leaves a lot to be desired. So far, it seems like it's nothing more than an attempt to do something with AI just to be there. Nevertheless, the feature will primarily help to overcome the well-known teething problems with Bubble.
We are confident that Bubble AI will only get better and make it easier for even more people to enter the tech world. As experienced bubble developers, we would currently prefer to use existing templates. These are often free, have more functions and are already equipped with data structures and workflows.
For Bubble beginners, however, the feature is definitely worth a look - paired with our Bubble Fundamentals course, of course. And we are excited to see how Bubble AI will continue to develop. After all, the tool is still in the beta phase and there is always room for improvement.
By the way, the Bubble AI also has a peculiar sense of humor. Here is an example profile of an AI-generated page:
Christina Aguilera like this:
