Just Have AI Build an App for That
I sometimes need to search for a website that will "convert a PNG to SVG", or "remove page from PDF" or "resize svg". And these apps are... okay. I don't really trust most of them with my data, and also a lot of times they just don't work or have too many ads.
So, I've been noticing a trend of people just using AI agents to create full blown apps for these simple use cases.
I decided to try it myself for a "resize SVG" app since I recently had to go through a bunch of websites to do this. So, I pulled up Replit Agent and even though I've used it before, it doesn't cease to amaze me just how insanely good it is. The level of polish on this product is unlike any other AI agent out there right now.
It starts off by drawing up a plan and asking you for feedback on that plan. Then, it'll just go to town and try to build the app. But what's super clever about it is that the agent asks you for feedback along the way. Effectively, the Replit Agent guides you, not the other way around (as one might have expected).
Below are some screenshots from my interactions with it:
After around fifteen minutes and a bit of handholding, I was able to get the app to work without modifying any of the code myself. Here's a GIF of the entire app in action (you can't see the download at the end).
Do you want to try it for yourself? Have at it! I deployed it here: https://svg-resizer-david-gomes.replit.app/. But it's costing me a bit of money so I don't expect it'll be around for too long.
To sum up, AI agents are already at an unbelievable level. And I will definitely be using them for some single-use apps like these. In the longer future though, perhaps we'll just go to Claude/ChatGPT directly and ask them to do the SVG resizing (or whatever else). But until that's available, this is a pretty good alternative to those shady websites.