AI in the loop, not in the driver's seat
How I fold AI assistance into real engineering without giving up review, security, or taste.
AI-assisted development is neither magic nor a threat — it's a power tool. Power tools are wonderful right up until you respect them less than they deserve.
Human-in-the-loop, always
Every AI-suggested change goes through the same review I'd give a teammate's PR: does it match the architecture, is it secure, does it handle the edge cases? The model drafts; a human decides. That boundary is non-negotiable.
Fundamentals don't get cheaper
If anything, AI raises the value of fundamentals. SOLID, clean code, semantic HTML, accessibility — they're how you evaluate what the model gives you. You can't review code you don't understand.
Where it shines
- Scaffolding the boring 80% so I can spend attention on the 20% that matters
- Exploring an unfamiliar API quickly, then verifying against the docs
- Catching the typo-class bug before it reaches review
Used this way, it's not about writing more code. It's about spending judgment where judgment counts.