AI-Assisted Development: Expectations vs. Reality with Richardson Dackam

Episode notes

AI isn't changing software development the way most people think — and Richardson Dackam can prove it. As Founder and AI Builder at N Shipyard, Richardson has been deep in the trenches of building with AI, and the reality on the ground looks very different from the headlines. He joins Aaron Marchbanks and Justin Edwards on SaaS That App to get honest about the wins, the gaps, and the assumptions founders and developers need to rethink, as well as lay out the skills that actually matter when you're building tech-enabled products with AI in the mix. What You’ll Learn: How to master prompt engineering and context engineering as foundational AI skills Why AI replaces tasks, not jobs, and how to position your team accordingly The workflow for rapid MVP development How to orchestrate multiple AI models for different stages of development The emerging role of AI skills as reusable, context-driven instructions Why human judgment remains critical in code review and design validation Richardson Dackam is a solo founder, software developer, and community builder at the intersection of AI and SaaS, based in Toronto, Ontario.