There is a lot of confusion about how useful Generative AI is in coding. Some say it’s a complete game-changer, and programmers either need to use it or eventually be replaced. Others, particularly senior developers, disagree strongly, only conceding a limited amount of tactical uses for repetitive tasks. Surveys have produced wildly different results for organizations. Some claim small improvements, while others claim extraordinary time savings. 

The evidence that generative AI cannot reason like humans is not at all a bad thing for the potential of software development. We probably do not want coding assistants to be just like human programmers.

Many senior developers have seen code quality decrease and tech debt increase when code is written too quickly and without proper reviews, even though “it works.” We must start thinking about the consequences of using AI to write it far faster, and what we will do if developers cannot improve their skills enough through coding tasks alone.