---
title: "Blog: AI, automation and software | KL"
description: "Practical knowledge on AI, automation and software development: articles and worked examples by KL from Metzingen, Germany."
canonical_url: "https://kevinludwig.com/en/blog"
last_updated: "2026-10-27"
---

# Practical insights on AI, automation and software.

Articles and worked examples by KL from Metzingen, Germany.

Latest, 27 Oct 2026, 10 min read

## [Make or buy? Usually the answer is: extend.](https://kevinludwig.com/en/blog/make-buy-or-extend-software)

With software, almost everyone asks: build or buy? What's missing is the option that fits most often: keep the standard software and extend it with the one process that makes you different. Where buying is enough, where to extend, where to build, and how to tell which is which.

- 20 Oct 2026, 8 min read

  ### [Translate & Adapt: Shopify's free translation app is the right foundation. What it lacks can be added.](https://kevinludwig.com/en/blog/shopify-translate-and-adapt-limits)

  Translate & Adapt is free, comes from Shopify and writes translations where Shopify serves them itself. That makes it the best foundation for a multilingual store. Where it stops is the automatic part: glossary, checks, update frequency and a way back. What the app does, where its limits are and when it's enough on its own.

- 13 Oct 2026, 4 min read

  ### [Headless Shopify with Next.js: When It's Worth It and When It Isn't](https://kevinludwig.com/en/blog/headless-shopify-nextjs-when-worth-it)

  A frontend of your own in front of Shopify sounds like more work than a theme. For most stores, it is. At whyraw it was the right call: live after five days, without third-party app scripts, with features no theme offers. How to tell which route fits your store.

- Translate Shopify natively

  6 Oct 2026, 6 min read

  ### [Translate Shopify Without a Translation App: Seven Languages, Native in the Store](https://kevinludwig.com/en/blog/shopify-native-translation)

  Shopify can store and serve translations itself. At LOULEX, a bot of our own fills those fields every hour in seven languages, with a glossary, checks, a log and rollback. The 299 € a month translation service is gone. This is how it's built.

- 29 Sept 2026, 6 min read

  ### [Replace Shopify Apps: Your Store Pays for Features Your Theme Already Has](https://kevinludwig.com/en/blog/replace-shopify-apps-theme)

  Every app costs you twice: on the invoice and in load time. At LOULEX we replaced six apps and a translation service costing 299 € a month. What Shopify apps really cost, how to review yours in 30 minutes and which ones may stay.

- Why custom software

  19 Sept 2026, 4 min read

  ### [Why Custom Software? 5 Signs Your Company Has Outgrown Standard Tools](https://kevinludwig.com/en/blog/why-custom-software)

  Spreadsheets next to the system, licenses that only half fit, data that never comes together: five signs that a standard tool has hit its limit. And when standard is still the better choice.

- AI for SMEs

  25 Mar 2026, 9 min read

  ### [AI for SMEs: Where Getting Started Really Pays Off](https://kevinludwig.com/en/blog/ai-for-smes)

  Document processing, customer communication, and sales: three AI entry points that pay off quickly for SMEs. With model calculations from our prototypes and audits.

- Process optimization with AI

  22 Feb 2025, 10 min read

  ### [AI Process Optimization: Automate Business Processes with AI, with Examples](https://kevinludwig.com/en/blog/process-optimization-with-ai)

  Most process costs don't come from the work itself but from the handovers: Excel next to the ERP, re-keying, waiting for an approval. What AI process optimization means, where rules are enough, where AI does more and how to automate business processes in four steps. With examples from retail, engineering firms and administration.