How to build an app with AI: from preview to app store

You can now start to build an app with AI from a single sentence. But a preview that opens on your phone is not an app sitting in the App Store. Most people discover that gap on their first attempt.

A note first: I am the founder of Entrobase. It is a product that builds websites and mobile apps with AI. At PNZ Medya we also build apps with a team. I wrote this as someone who sees both sides; keep that in mind as you read.

Below I walk through the process step by step. I have tried to separate three things. What you need to prepare, where AI speeds things up, and where it still waits for your decision.

What does it mean to build an app with AI?

The phrase is used for two different things. The first is having AI write the app itself. You describe what you want, and the tool generates the screens and the code. The second is putting an AI feature, such as a chat assistant or image recognition, inside an app.

This post is about the first. Today there are three ways to do it, and each needs attention in a different place.

Where does an app differ from a website?

Most of a website looks similar from one business to the next, and AI builds that part very quickly. Apps are different. An app usually remembers something: the user, their order, their booking, their history.

Everything an app remembers is a new decision. AI can make those decisions for you, but you need to know which decision it made. When you open the first draft, look for answers to these five questions:

• Accounts: will users sign in with email, with a phone number, or not at all?
• Data: what is stored, where does it live and who can see it?
• Notifications: when and why will the app message the user?
• Payments: will sales happen inside the app or on your website?
• Connectivity: what does the app show when there is no internet?

For the website side, I wrote a separate post on what AI site builders can and cannot do.

Write one flow before you start

The mistake I see most often is trying to describe the whole app in the first prompt. The result is a draft that does a bit of everything and finishes nothing. Most software projects struggle because of scope, not code, and AI-built apps are no exception.

Instead, write the app's core flow in one sentence: who, on which screen, does what, and what happens at the end. Take a hair salon. The customer picks a service and a time, enters a name and phone number, and the booking is confirmed. Get that flow working first; profiles, ratings and promotions come later.

A ready prompt for your app brief

You can use the prompt below with any AI assistant to turn your idea into an app brief. When you give the result to an app builder, the first draft lands much closer to what you meant.

I have an idea for a mobile app and I want to make it clear before I build it with AI. Ask me about the topics below in order; ask one question at a time and wait for my answer.

1. Who will use the app and what problem does it solve?
2. Core flow: which screen does the user start on, what do they do, and what happens at the end?
3. Do users need an account? If so, how will they sign in?
4. What data will be stored and who can see it?
5. Does the app need phone features such as notifications, payments or location?
6. Will the app go to the app stores, or is a web app that opens in the browser enough?

When the questions are done, write:
- A one-paragraph description of the app
- The steps of the core flow (at most 7)
- The screens that go into the first version
- Features left out of the first version for later
- Topics I have not answered yet or that are still unclear

Do not invent anything I did not tell you; put everything you are unsure about in the unclear topics list.

The most valuable parts of the output are the last two lists. The list of features left for later protects your scope. The list of unclear topics stops the AI from filling the gaps with guesses.

How to build an app with AI, step by step

1. Write the core flow and the screens of the first version; the prompt above is for this.
2. Pick a tool, give it the brief and open the first draft on your own phone.
3. Walk through the core flow yourself from start to finish; do not ask for new features until the broken step is fixed.
4. Add real content: services, prices, copy and images.
5. Check the account, data and privacy settings.
6. Let a few real users try the app and note where they get stuck.
7. Open your store accounts and start the publishing steps.

The third step is the one most often skipped. Because asking AI for changes is so easy, new screens get added before the flow is finished. You end up with an app that has many screens but cannot complete a single flow.

From preview to app store: the part few people mention

A preview on your phone shows that the app works; it does not show that the app is live. Getting into the stores takes a few more tasks, and most of them are your job rather than the AI's.

• Developer accounts: the Apple Developer Program costs 99 dollars a year and Google Play Console charges a one-time 25 dollar registration fee. Open them in your own or your company's name.
• Privacy declaration: both stores ask what data the app collects. Depending on where you operate, local privacy law such as GDPR adds its own requirements.
• Store listing: screenshots, a short and a long description, a category and a support address.
• Review: Apple reviews every version before release; a rejected version is fixed and resubmitted.

Not every project needs the stores either. Maybe people find you through search, ads or links. Then a web app that opens in the browser and sits on the home screen may be enough. Make that call before you build.

Questions to ask before you pick a tool

Whichever tool you use, the first question is the same: who keeps the code and the accounts? With some tools the app only lives inside that platform. If you want to leave, you have to rebuild everything.

• Can I download the code whenever I want?
• Whose name will the store accounts and the app listing be under?
• Is the build I see in preview the same one that goes to the store?
• Where is the data stored, and can I export it?
• When the app grows, can a developer work on this code?

Here is my answer in my own product. On Entrobase the code always belongs to the user, and you can download the project at any time. If you choose another tool, ask it for the same answer.

Should you put AI inside your app?

An app built with AI does not need AI inside it. A booking app does its job without a chat assistant. Some features are added because everyone else has one, not to solve a user's problem. Those only make the app heavier.

AI can be added to any product, but it should not be added everywhere.

If you decide to add it, measure two things from the start. The first is cost: every request is a model call, and the bill grows with your users. The second is quality: decide in advance how a wrong answer will be caught before it reaches the user.

AI makes reaching the first version of an app much faster. But you still decide which flow matters, which data is stored and whose name the app is published under. Write those three decisions down first, and whichever tool you choose, you will have less to redo.