Code faster, ship dumber? The productivity illusion of AI

Remember when the wildest part of software development was a new JavaScript framework every week?

Now we’ve got Copilot and accomplices auto-completing entire functions. AI tools are everywhere. And according to the headlines, developer productivity is up. 25 percent, 30 percent, 40 percent, depending on who’s selling the story.

The numbers sound impressive. Studies show teams writing more code, finishing tasks faster, shipping sooner.

But the closer you look, the messier it gets.

Nearly half of all developers say they don’t trust AI-generated code.
A controlled study found experienced developers actually took 19 percent longer when using AI, not because the code was better, but because they had to double-check every suggestion.

Another analysis showed that 45 percent of AI-generated code had security flaws.

And even when the code “works,” it’s often verbose, redundant, or barely maintainable. More code, more bugs, more time spent debugging instead of building.

AI doesn't just increase output. It accelerates organizational debt.

Yet somehow, companies still celebrate velocity as if more lines of code equals progress.
Elon Musk once claimed great developers write more code than average ones. Linus Torvalds had a fitting response:

“Anybody who thinks that's a valid metric is too stupid to work at a tech company.”

It's not about writing more code. It’s about writing the right code and trusting that it won’t blow up in production.

The dangerous myth of “we won’t need developers”

AI should revolutionize software development.
In 2025, it distorted it.

Instead of empowering teams, it gave companies an excuse to cut headcount. Layoffs happened. Some of those same engineers got quietly rehired. But the worst shift? Junior developers stopped getting hired at all.

And that’s not just short-sighted. It’s dangerous.

The loudest voices claiming “you won’t need to code anymore” are either trying to inflate their AI startup valuation or have never shipped a product past a prototype. Saying developers are obsolete isn't insight. It's grift.

Even AWS CEO Matt Garman called it out directly. Replacing junior devs with AI, he said, is one of the dumbest ideas he’s ever heard.

And he backed it up with three reasons:

  1. Juniors adapt faster to AI
    They’re AI and digital natives. They grew up with this tech. Over 55 percent of junior developers use AI tools daily, higher than most senior engineers. They explore, iterate, and learn in public.

  2. They’re not the cost problem
    Juniors are the cheapest employees on the team. Cutting them doesn’t move the needle on cost, but it guts your ability to grow from within.

  3. No juniors, no pipeline
    You don’t get senior engineers out of nowhere. Without juniors, you lose mentorship, fresh thinking, and future leadership. It's a slow death spiral.

This isn’t theory. Companies that cut junior roles in 2024 are already rehiring offshore or at reduced wages just to keep up. The work didn’t go away. They just convinced themselves it could be automated.

You don’t build a strong engineering culture by pretending AI is a replacement. You build it by investing in humans and letting AI assist them, not erase them.

Anyone telling you otherwise is just trying to cash in on the bubble before it bursts.

The death of learning by doing

AI didn’t just automate boilerplate. It skipped the learning process too, and that’s a problem.

Developers used to learn by doing.
You broke things. You fixed them. You tried the wrong approach, then figured out why it failed. That struggle built context. Judgment. Real problem-solving skills.

Now? You ask ChatGPT. You accept Copilot’s suggestion. You ship something that works, but you don’t know why.

We lose the most important developer skill: engineering intuition.
The ability to understand problems and choose the best solution based on the current context.

Without that, you don’t grow. You just copy, paste, and hope for the best.

Use It, Don’t Worship It

AI is great for boilerplate, quick fixes, even writing docs.
But it doesn’t understand context like we do, and it won’t write long-term code for you or your team.
It’s not a tool. It’s a genie without senses.
Don’t expect it to understand the world.

And don’t forget how to think.