The Last Mile Problem: Why AI Agents Generate Code But Can't Ship Products

While AI coding agents can generate complete applications in hours, the true bottleneck has shifted from code creation to operational infrastructure. Deploying production systems requires weeks of work across database provisioning, authentication, billing metering, and payment processing—the 'economic shell' that converts a working app into a revenue-generating product. This operations layer is now the critical constraint determining whether AI-generated applications ever reach paying customers.