Building Production AI Apps with Next.js 14 and Vercel AI SDK

Introduction

Building AI-powered applications has never been more accessible. With Next.js 14 and the Vercel AI SDK, you can create production-ready apps in hours, not weeks.

Setting Up the Project

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bash
npx create-next-app@latest my-ai-app
cd my-ai-app
npm install ai openai

Creating Your First AI Route

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typescript
import { OpenAI } from 'openai';
import { OpenAIStream, StreamingTextResponse } from 'ai';

const client = new OpenAI();

export async function POST(req: Request) {
  const { messages } = await req.json();
  const response = await client.chat.completions.create({
    model: 'gpt-4-turbo',
    stream: true,
    messages,
  });
  const stream = OpenAIStream(response);
  return new StreamingTextResponse(stream);
}

The useChat Hook

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tsx
'use client';
import { useChat } from 'ai/react';

export default function Chat() {
  const { messages, input, handleInputChange, handleSubmit } = useChat();
  return (
    <div>
      {messages.map(m => (
        <div key={m.id}><strong>{m.role}:</strong> {m.content}</div>
      ))}
      <form onSubmit={handleSubmit}>
        <input value={input} onChange={handleInputChange} />
        <button type="submit">Send</button>
      </form>
    </div>
  );
}

Conclusion

Next.js and the Vercel AI SDK make building AI apps genuinely enjoyable. The streaming primitives, edge runtime support, and tight React integration mean you spend time on product logic rather than infrastructure.