Does AI actually make work easier?

Initial assumption

First of all, I’d like to point out that everything I write here is from a developer’s perspective. Some of my thoughts can certainly be applied to other industries as well.

AI is a double-edged sword ⚔️

Artificial intelligence is a double-edged sword. Everything depends on how we use it.

Advantages ✅

• we get a great assistant that understands the tech world very well
• we can do more work in the same amount of time
• our capabilities increase drastically
• we can handle some tasks “ourselves” without hiring a specialist
• we can delegate repetitive or simple tasks

Disadvantages ❌

• sometimes (or maybe often?) we trust AI too much
• we can lose control over our codebase if we don’t split tasks into small pieces and verify them along the way
• less communication with the team, because “we have AI anyway”
• it can kill or worsen our creative thinking
• it’s easy to become overconfident

A helpful tool 🛠️

Being a developer in today’s world, it’s hard to ignore AI. It’s a powerful help and a tool we should always have at hand.

Task planning

Using AI when planning tasks can help us a lot in turning our thoughts or short notes into an organized plan. Of course, we’re always responsible for that plan, so we should keep a close eye on it.

IDE integration

Integrating our favorite model with the IDE is a great thing. We don’t have to describe our project every single time. AI can adapt to our style in a given repository. Moreover, AI can directly modify our code, which is more convenient than copying and pasting from a chat.

Learning with AI

It’s also great to learn with AI. It’s much easier to ask in a chat than to search through many internet forums. Of course, we always have to keep in mind that AI may give us false or outdated information.

When can we skip this tool?

If we’re programming as a hobby or just learning a new programming language, then we can skip using AI. When working on commercial projects, it’s not worth doing so, because we’d only be shooting ourselves in the foot.

Conclusions

There isn’t one good answer to the question posed in the title. We should definitely learn AI and try to work with it, because the market may leave us behind. Without it, we won’t be competitive. However, let’s never forget about critical thinking. Nothing can replace our experience. AI sometimes doesn’t know the full context or the norms in your company.

Above all, remember that you are responsible for the code — regardless of whether you wrote it yourself or AI generated it.