It's Ramadan, and like most of us, I've been spending my nights after Taraweeh catching up with friends. We sit around, drink coffee, and talk. Lately, though, the conversations have been different.

We talk about the wars that keep escalating. The tensions between nations that feel like they could tip over at any moment. The world feels chaotic, uncertain. And then, in the same breath, we talk about AI. Opus, Codex, Kimi, you name it. Models getting smarter every few months, engineers watching their own workflows get replaced, entire industries bracing for impact.

The world is on fire in some places, and yet the technology is moving faster than ever.

The Post That Shook Me

A few weeks ago, I came across a post by Matt Shumer on X that I haven't been able to stop thinking about. He's spent six years building an AI startup, and his message was blunt: he's no longer needed for the actual technical work of his job. He describes what he wants, walks away, and comes back to find it done

He compared this moment to February 2020, when most people hadn't yet realized how much COVID was about to change everything. His argument: we're in that same "this seems overblown" phase, except this time it's about AI.

As a software engineer myself, I felt that. I've seen the jump in capability firsthand. The models available today are genuinely different from what existed even six months ago.

But here's what hit me the hardest: this isn't just about tech workers anymore. The AI labs focused on code first because it helps them build better AI. That phase is done. Now they're moving on to everything else, law, finance, medicine, writing, analysis. Im writing this with expectations that you're aware that Claude Cowork can literally work on your excel sheet. Wait, you don't know that? Watch the video here.

The Indonesian Gap

Here's where I want to talk about us. About Indonesia.

From my late-night Ramadan conversations, I've noticed a pattern. Most of my friends, smart, capable people, use AI the same way: they ask it questions. "What is X?" "Explain Y to me." They treat it like a slightly better Google.

But that's not what AI is anymore. The shift isn't from "ask something" to "ask something better." It's from asking to doing. You don't ask AI to explain a contract. You give it the contract and ask it to draft a counterproposal. You don't ask AI how to build a financial model. You give it the data and ask it to build one.

Most Indonesians haven't made that leap yet. And I think the biggest reason is money.

The Subscription Barrier

Let's be real: $20/month is not cheap for most Indonesians. That's roughly Rp 330,000. For a lot of people, that's a significant monthly expense. I get it. I really do.

But here's the thing. The free version of these AI tools is over a year behind what paying users have access to. Judging AI based on the free tier is like evaluating smartphones by using a feature phone. The gap between the free and paid experience is enormous, and it's only getting wider.

The paid versions don't just answer questions better. They can:

• Write and debug entire codebases
• Analyze complex documents and extract insights
• Build financial models from raw data
• Draft legal documents with actual nuance
• Think through multi-step problems that would take you hours

The free version gives you a taste. The paid version gives you a coworker.

Rethinking Our Budget

I'm not here to tell anyone how to spend their money. But I am asking you to think about this: what are you already paying for monthly that gives you less value?

A streaming service you barely watch? Kopi Susu Tetangga by Tuku? An extra food delivery that you didn't really need? By the way, I figure out how to saved a lot of money from your daily coffee expense. Read it here

If you're a knowledge worker, a developer, a lawyer, an accountant, a writer, a consultant, a student preparing for a career in any of these fields, an AI subscription might be the single highest-ROI investment you can make right now. Not because it's cool or trendy. Because the world is moving, and the gap between people who use AI seriously and people who don't is growing every single day.

I pay for Claude Pro. It's one of my essential subscriptions alongside 1Password and Linear. Not because I'm an AI fanboy, but because it genuinely makes me better at my job. I use it for debugging, code reviews, writing, and thinking through architecture decisions. It saves me hours every week.

The Window Is Closing

Matt Shumer made a point that stuck with me: right now, there's a brief window where most people are still ignoring this. The person who walks into a meeting and says "I used AI to do this analysis in an hour instead of three days" is the most valuable person in the room.

That window won't stay open forever. Once everyone catches up, the advantage disappears. But right now, in Indonesia, most people haven't even started.

This is our moment. Not to panic, but to pay attention. To stop treating AI as a novelty and start treating it as infrastructure — something you invest in, learn deeply, and integrate into your actual work.

What I'd Tell My Friends After Taraweeh

If you're reading this, here's what I'd say to you the same way I say it to my friends over coffee at midnight:

Start now. Not next month, not after Lebaran. Now.

Pay for the subscription. Try Claude Pro or ChatGPT Plus for one month. Give it real work, not toy questions. Feed it your actual problems and see what happens.

Shift from asking to doing. Don't ask AI to explain something. Ask it to do something. Give it your data, your documents, your code. Let it work.

Spend one hour a day experimenting. Try something new each time. Push it harder than you think it can handle. You'll be surprised.

Don't let ego get in the way. Using AI doesn't diminish your expertise. It amplifies it. The most senior people in the world are using these tools. You should too.

The world is chaotic. Wars rage on, economies shift, and uncertainty is the only constant. But in the middle of all that chaos, there's a tool that can make you significantly more capable, more productive, and more prepared for what's coming.

It costs $20 a month.

It might be the most important investment you make this year.

This post was inspired by Matt Shumer's viral thread on the current state of AI. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend you do.

I'm Sena — software engineer at Biteship, founder of Kugie. I write about building software, scaling systems, and navigating the tech landscape from Indonesia. Follow me on X @setasenarr.