AI is a powerful tool, In the hands of an experienced developer, it becomes a weapon of mass productivity. In the hands of a junior developer, it can easily become a weapon of self-destruction.
Don’t get me wrong, AI has permanently changed the game. It’s doubled efficiency, sped up debugging, and unlocked new levels of problem-solving. I’ve used it so much that I can instantly tell when a colleague pastes raw AI output without filtering or fine-tuning it.
Recently, I had the chance to work with a few junior devs, and I was honestly shocked by how heavily some of them rely on AI. I always ask them:
Do you understand the suggested fix?
Did you test it properly?
Does the UI match the design pixel for pixel?
Do you know the performance impact of the technique you used?
Did you even ask your AI for pros and cons—or an implementation plan?
I mean, it's easy to just copy your problem and paste it into ChatGPT or Claude. But what about code structure? Performance optimisations? Memory leaks? and so on.
The gist is, AI can assist with all of that—but rarely on the first try. You need to guide it, prompt it precisely, and validate the output thoroughly.
These oversights show up quickly, especially when reviewing pull requests. It’s become frustrating to constantly point out basic issues that should’ve been caught with proper scrutiny. If you're blindly trusting AI without understanding or refining what it gives you, you're not just slowing down your team, you’re weakening your own growth.
So, to my dearest young and aspiring devs: Use the tool to help you improve, learn, and do the work. Because when your experience or knowledge is combined with the right tools, you won’t just get by—you’ll do exploits.
cheers
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