š” My Personal Experience Using AI in Web Development
In recent years, AI has become an essential assistant for developersāespecially in the world of web development. In this article, Iāll share my personal experience with AI tools, highlighting where they shine, and where you should be cautious when using them.
ā Effective Use Cases for AI in Web Development
1. Creating Utility Functions and Pure Functions
AI is incredibly good at generating clean and optimized utility functions. Whether itās for formatting text, manipulating data, or simple logic, the results are usually excellent.
2. Writing Native JavaScript and Browser API Code
When dealing with raw JavaScript or browser-specific APIs (like IntersectionObserver, Clipboard API, WebSockets, etc.), AI provides reliable and fast solutions, saving you time from reading documentation.
3. Code Documentation and Comments
AI is super helpful when it comes to writing clean inline comments or even full documentation files (like Markdown docs). This is particularly useful when working in a team or contributing to open-source projects.
4. Building Specific UI Components (with Clear Inputs/Outputs)
If you clearly explain what the component needs (props, expected outputs), AI can generate code that is often close to production-ready.
5. Localization & Internationalization
AI can assist in quickly translating content and generating proper localization files (.json, .po, etc.) based on the structure youāre using.
6. Generating Placeholder or Dummy Data
Extremely useful during the early stages of development to simulate API responses or UI behavior with realistic-looking mock data.
7. Generating Backend Entities with ORM (Prisma, TypeORM, etc.)
By giving a detailed explanation of your system resources and their properties, AI can generate entity schemas and modelsāsomething that usually takes a lot of time when done manually.
8. Code Refactoring (ā Highly Recommended)
One of the areas where AI truly shines. It understands your logic, cleans up messy code, and improves structureāsaving hours of work with impressive results.
ā ļø Use Cases Where You Should Be Cautious
1. Project Architecture & Boilerplate Setup
If you donāt provide a very detailed description, AI might fall back to outdated or overly simplified project structures. Youāll need to guide it carefully.
2. Final UI Design (Especially for Arabic/RTL Layouts)
AI isnāt great at full-page designsāespecially in Arabic or RTL. You might spend more time fixing its output than building it yourself. The better approach: explain the UI section by section.
3. Creating Animations
AI-generated animations often fall short in terms of quality or smoothness. For complex or modern UI/UX effects, manual work or specialized tools are better.
4. Debugging New Framework Features
If you're using a very recent feature from a library or framework (e.g., the latest version of React, Next.js, etc.), AI may not be up-to-date or trained on enough examples to help effectively.
5. Runtime Error Debugging
Just pasting the console error isnāt enough. AI needs full context: components involved, the flow of execution, and what you're trying to do. Without that, it might give you irrelevant solutions.
š« Golden Rule
āNever copy code from AI that you donāt understand.ā
If AI generates something unfamiliar or complex, read it, ask it to explain, or search it online. Blindly copying codeāespecially logic-heavy snippetsācan be risky.
š Bonus AI Use Cases
- Improving SEO: AI can write meta tags, generate structured data (JSON-LD), and suggest better titles/descriptions.
- Writing Tests (Jest, Vitest, Cypress): With proper input, AI can generate test cases that follow your logic and structure.
- Summarizing Long Code or Documentation: If you're working with legacy code or a new library, AI can break down whatās going on quickly and clearly.
š§ Final Thoughts
AI is not a replacement for developersāitās a powerful tool. The more you understand its strengths and weaknesses, the better you can use it to enhance your workflow and speed up delivery without sacrificing quality.
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