AI coding assistants have become part of many developers' day: they draft code, explain errors and suggest tests. I have used them enough to say their benefit is real, and so are their risks if misused.

Where they genuinely help

  • First drafts of repetitive code, interfaces and queries.
  • Explaining code you do not know and summarizing what it does.
  • Writing tests and generating edge cases you overlooked.
  • Converting code from one style to another or reviewing its structure.

Where they go wrong

A model writes mistakes with the same confidence as correct answers. Common failures include calling functions or packages that do not exist, ignoring error cases, writing code that works but is insecure (unprepared queries, incomplete permission checks), and using outdated APIs.

Rules I follow in my work

  1. Treat the output like a pull request from a junior developer: read it line by line before accepting it.
  2. Ask for small, specific tasks instead of "build me the whole system"; quality rises with clarity.
  3. Never paste secrets into a chat: API keys, database passwords, customer data. Replace them with dummy values.
  4. Always run the tests, and write a test before trusting a critical function.
  5. Verify packages before installing them: do they exist, are they known and maintained?
  6. Review security yourself for anything touching sign-in, payments or file uploads.
  7. Understand what you merge. If you cannot explain a line to a colleague, do not merge it.

Responsibility does not transfer

When something breaks in production, a client will not accept "the AI wrote it" as an excuse. Responsibility stays with whoever delivers the project. That is why I see these tools as accelerators for developers, not replacements: they save time on routine work so a human can focus on design, judgment and quality review.

All the speed you gain from the tool is wasted if you merge what you do not understand.

If you are a project owner, ask your developer: how do you review generated code, and where do tests run? The answers say a lot about the quality of the work.