DEVOPSdigest

AI is becoming central across industries and the app development market is no exception. Every app in the world is on track to be reinvented with AI. Even the most basic, single-purpose apps in Windows like Notepad and Paint are now infused with AI to enhance productivity. These longtime staples, once just for quick notes and basic image editing, are evolving with intelligent features that help users work faster and smarter than ever before.

This surge of artificial intelligence is not only manifesting in consumer-facing app features, it's also being integrated into every aspect of software development, a shift that is resulting in discourse among developers who are wary of how the technology will affect their roles.

It can't be denied that AI is transforming how developers work, but it's not here to take your job — it's here to amplify your impact. Rather than replacing developers, AI enables developers to solve bigger problems much faster, which means that they can deliver more value in less time than ever imagined. Companies aren't looking to cut development teams; they're looking to supercharge them with AI-driven efficiency. The real opportunity isn't in resisting AI — it's in embracing AI to do more and push the boundaries of what's possible.

As companies look to integrate AI, it's up to the tech leaders and developers to make sure that they are using the appropriate tools and methods to incorporate AI into their workflows. The capacity for digital product teams to provide genuine value is expanded when AI is viewed as a collaborator rather than a substitute.

Here are three ways developers can work with AI to enhance efficiency, improve user experience, and drive innovation.

Merging AI Insights with Human Intuition for a Successful Business Strategy

With the vast amount of data and information floating around in organizations it can be hard to gather a clear picture of what's working and what's not. Developers often jump between manuals, internal wikis, code review comments, Q&A sites, and user feedback, consuming up to 25% of coding time.

That's where AI can come in to quickly scan all of those data points and pull insights so that developers can better understand how apps are performing. What AI is not yet capable of, however, is using these insights to adjust architecture design or to determine the single, best path forward.

Software development teams can lean on the holistic insights surfaced by AI's rapid processing capabilities to inform strategic decisions — whether that involves deciding what features should be given priority or rethinking certain design elements. The anomalies and patterns AI identifies will help developers and project managers optimize their larger business strategies and go to market more confidently.

Streamlining Essential — But Heavily Manual — Tasks

In order to create an app that stays up to speed with consumer demands and trends, a lot of time-consuming, mundane tasks go into the back end of development. These, almost mindless, routines that need to be accomplished take time away from innovative creation or strategic planning.

Developers can offload these tasks to AI agents so that they can devote more time to the areas of development that demand human nuance. With AI, tasks such as the creation of basic user interfaces, the development of data models, or creating unit tests, can all be automated. Employees can also tap AI agents to help them create classes or lines of code similar to what has already been created instead of wasting time constantly entering the same code.

With all of these manual checkpoints taken off their hands, developers can then focus on problem-solving, creative solutions, and polishing app users' experiences.

Solving the Knowledge Gap with "Pair Programmers"

AI Agents are capable of more than automating repetitive tasks when it comes to code. More and more businesses' are leaning on what they refer to as on-demand "pair programmers" or AI agents who help internal developers fill knowledge gaps.

These pair programmers can assist any level of developer from junior to senior to ensure work is up to standard and minimize mistakes. Nobody is all-knowing and researching how to accomplish certain nuanced or complex task can take hours of time. AI serves as the missing link, giving every developer of every skill set a coding partner that can ensure satisfaction.

Especially as digital expectations rise among consumers and AI is integrated into consumer-facing experiences, having an internal AI-driven coding partner will prove instrumental to creating the smooth, unique app experience users expect.

This use of AI also helps to onboard junior developers faster, allowing them to get up to speed with unfamiliar codebases at a rate they would not have been able to achieve previously.

As AI continues to permeate every industry, teams need to learn how to balance automation with deeper level oversight. The future will not be about how AI will take over for humans but rather address the capabilities AI will unlock for humans to use. In development, AI will become the brain but developers will remain as the heart, guiding business with their creativity, intuition, experience — all now supplemented with AI insights.