Connected tools beat fancy AI

Nobody talks about the boring part of technology success.

James here.

Everyone loves a story about breakthrough innovation.

But real success usually comes from something much less exciting.

Look at what happened with Manus.ai recently.

People went wild about this new AI assistant.

But here's the thing most missed: it wasn't using any new technology.

It simply connected Claude Sonnet to 29 different tools using a browser.

All off-the-shelf components.

Nothing custom or revolutionary about the tech itself.

The magic was entirely in how these pieces connected.

This isn't a new pattern.

The iPod wasn't the first MP3 player on the market.

Facebook wasn't the first social network.

Neither won because of technological innovation.

They won because they connected existing pieces in a way that felt seamless.

Earlier AI tools like Baby AGI required terminal knowledge and constantly broke.

Most people couldn't use them even if they wanted to.

But when someone connected those same capabilities in a user-friendly way?

Suddenly everyone's interested.

This has huge implications for anyone working with technology.

You don't need to wait for better AI models or fancy new tools.

The components you need probably already exist.

Virtual browsers?

 Available.

Language models?

Ready to use.

Web search capabilities? 

Everywhere.

The opportunity is in the connections between them.

This applies beyond just AI products too.

In business operations, the tools you already have access to likely contain most of what you need.

The same goes for marketing systems or customer service setups.

We're seeing an explosion of AI agent tools not because the models got so much better.

It's because integration is becoming easier.

OpenAI's Responses API and Microsoft's Azure integrations mean connecting things is simpler.

The building blocks are standardizing.

So while everyone else waits for the next GPT model...

Or jumps frantically between each new AI release...

The real opportunity is making better connections between what already exists.

Innovation rarely comes from creating something entirely new.

It comes from connecting existing pieces in ways that remove friction and deliver immediate value.

Stop waiting for the next breakthrough.

Start connecting what's already available.

That's where the real magic happens.

In your corner,
James Foster

PS - Need an easy way to connect apps and AI without APIs or coding knowledge?

Use Make.

They can connect over 2,000 apps together for almost any use you can think of.