Disposable Software
How to Turn Messy Data Into a Working Tool in 20 Minutes
Lucas Bennington · Founder, Codi Technologies

Microsoft AI Culture of Learning · April 9, 2026
Today's Agenda
Lucas Bennington
Founder, Codi Technologies (Portland, OR) AI-native software agency. I build with AI every day.
60 Minutes Together
01
15 min — Two Big Ideas
AI-Native Teams and Disposable Software
02
15 min — Live Build
VS Code + Copilot: messy CSV → working tool
03
30 min — Open Q&A
The part I'm most looking forward to
Today's Outcomes
A clear mental model
What "AI-native" actually means beyond Copilot-for-email
Permission + a recipe
Kill one annoyance in your workflow this week
Real ideas to try
In Copilot when you get back to your desk
About Lucas
I build things because it's fun.
A solution to a problem only I have
We'll explore this today as an example of disposable software but first the state of AI
AI is being sold as a productivity headset.
Put it on → same human → more output. More emails. More tickets. More decks.
"How much more can we squeeze out of the same person?"
I think this is the wrong way to think about what's happening.
AI should make your people better, not just busier.
The problems they couldn't reach last year. The work that was too ambitious to try.
This is the change worth unlocking
What AI-Native Actually Means
Designed with AI at the center.
Not bolted on the side.
Intake. Scoping. Delivery. Internal ops. All of it assumes AI is part of the workflow.
Not this
"We have Copilot licenses."
"Chat, can you draft a response to…"
"Generate an image for my presentation"
This
"An agent has prepared my schedule, triaged my tasks, and has a list of questions for me before I start the work day"
"Our AI has a complete understanding of the work we do and fits right alongside our team"
"Every workflow we build starts with AI at the center"
Disposable Software
Kleenex for workflows.
A tool you build to solve one problem, use, and throw away.
For 20 years, your options were:
  • Buy a tool → adopt somebody else's workflow
  • File a ticket → wait weeks
  • Or just live with the annoyance
With AI, the cost of building a tool collapses to minutes.
Tools cost weeks and months of effort
You treat them as sacred
Tools cost 10 minutes
You don't
Disposable software lets someone without technical expertise automate a workflow.
Three Principles to Watch
Keep these in mind when I build in a minute:
1
Describe outcomes, not code.
Tell the agent what you want. Not how to write it.
2
Iterate, don't plan.
No spec. Ugly-and-working first. The first version is the spec.
3
Nothing is sacred.
The moment you treat software as sacred, you stop building new ones.
Software should work for you.
Not the other way around.
Now let's actually build one.
What you're about to see:
Messy conference CSV plus a context folder
VS Code and GitHub Copilot — tools you already have
~15 minutes, two phases: a prioritized follow-up doc, then a working tracker app
Close the loop: push clean data into our CRM

"Watch the outputs more than the code."
Q&A
1
Software should work for you, not the other way around.
2
This week pick the smallest annoyance in your workflow, open Copilot, describe a tool, use it once, delete it.
Connect with me for:
The slides
The demo repository and prompts/context
Battleship tips