How to Fix Performance
in AI-Built Apps

Why AI Apps Are Slow

AI coding tools optimize for getting code to work, not for performance. Every dependency gets imported, every animation gets added, every feature gets included — regardless of size or cost. The result is apps that work but feel sluggish.

The good news: most AI app performance issues have the same root causes, and they are fixable.

Issue: Huge Bundle Size

AI tools generate code that imports entire libraries instead of specific functions. A simple utility might pull in thousands of lines of unused code.

Fix: Run npm run analyze (with @next/bundle-analyzer) to see what is in your bundle. Replace full library imports with specific imports. For example, import isEmail from validator instead of importing the entire validator library.

Issue: Unoptimized Images

Images are the biggest performance bottleneck on the web. AI tools often use raw img tags with full-resolution images.

Fix: Replace all img tags with Next.js Image component. It automatically resizes, compresses, and lazy loads images. Add width and height props to prevent layout shift.

Issue: Too Many API Requests

AI apps often make API requests on every render without caching. This makes pages slow and can hit API rate limits.

Fix: Add React Query (TanStack Query) for client-side caching. Use Next.js server components to fetch data once on the server. Implement SWR for simple caching with revalidation.

Issue: Memory Leaks

Event listeners added in useEffect without cleanup accumulate over time, causing memory leaks that slow down the browser.

Fix: Always return a cleanup function from useEffect. Check for return () => removeEventListener... in every useEffect that adds listeners.

Issue: No Code Splitting

The entire app loads on first page load, even if the user only needs a small part.

Fix: Next.js does automatic code splitting per route, but large components should be lazy loaded. Use dynamic() from next/dynamic to load heavy components on demand.

Getting Help

Performance optimization is a specialized skill. We have fixed performance issues in hundreds of AI-built apps.