One of the side effects of massive AI adoption in programming is how that impacts some open source projects.
Tailwind CSS is a successful CSS library. Unlike other frameworks, like Bootstrap, it does not provide a series of predefined classes for elements such as buttons or tables. Instead, it creates a list of "utility" CSS classes that can be used to style each element by mixing and matching.
AI is creating pressure on the commercial offering from Tailwind because it is now easy for AI to recombine the elements to create full web components. So no reasons to buy their high-level commercial components.
I've seen this firsthand. While building a new website with AI assistance, I didn't use any CSS framework at all. The AI generated custom, responsive styles from scratch, and the results are clean and professional.
According to this article, Tailwind has faced significant challenges from this shift, though they've recently secured backing from Google, Vercel, and Lovable to adapt their model.
This raises a bigger question: if AI can generate what you used to sell, how do open source projects sustain themselves commercially? The old model of "free core + paid convenience layer" may need rethinking when AI provides that convenience layer for free.
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