How Developers Can Build Lasting Value With AI Coding Tools

Forbes

5 days ago

Deepa Shekhar, Director, E-commerce & Marketing Technologies @ Logitech is passionate about engineering leadership and mindset.
For years, the life of a developer has been a sprint. We solve problems, close tickets and ship features. However, a fundamental shift is underway. With AI assistants generating functional code in seconds, the ability to simply "make it work" is becoming a commodity.
This isn't a threat; it's an opportunity. The future belongs to developers who move beyond writing code and learn to craft it. This is the shift from being a coder to a code craftsperson—focusing on intentionality, experience, elegance and building systems that last. In practice, it means adopting a set of deliberate, professional disciplines.
The Assembly Line Mindset
Many developers have been conditioned to work on a digital assembly line driven by velocity. The goal is to close the ticket and move on, often treating code as a temporary artifact to be fixed later. The joy comes from solving the puzzle. When AI can solve the puzzle, our value must shift from finding just the solution to architecting the right solution that is elegant, maintainable and strengthens the entire system.
This is a continuous journey. Here's how you can start walking the path, integrating AI effectively and fostering a culture of innovation.
1. The Learning Process: Getting Started
This is the single most effective way to learn. When reviewing, don't just hunt for bugs; improve quality by asking, "Why?" When your code is reviewed, embrace feedback as a gift to make your work more valuable. Proactively ask for guidance on specific parts you're unsure about.
Just as writers read great books, developers should read great code. Explore well-regarded open-source projects to look for patterns and modern practices.
Shift your focus from what you are building to who you are building for. A true craftsperson anticipates the user's needs and designs solutions that feel effortless. This empathy translates directly into better technical choices, leading to simpler user flows, faster load times and an overall better outcome.
A craftsperson doesn't work in a vacuum. Stay current by following key industry newsletters and tech blogs to understand emerging trends. Critically evaluate new tools, asking what problems they solve and their trade-offs. Share what you learn by writing internal posts, answering questions online or presenting at team talks to reinforce your knowledge and elevate your community.
2. Integrating AI Into Your Daily Craft
Think of AI as a pair—a programmer and an assistant. You provide the direction, context and critical judgment.
Prompt your AI to improve existing code. ("Refactor this function for readability, adhering to the Single Responsibility Principle. Add comments explaining the 'why' for any non-obvious logic.")
Ask your AI partner to help improve quality. ("Write a comprehensive set of unit tests for this function using Jest, including happy paths, edge cases like null inputs and potential error states.")
Use AI to explore architectural possibilities. ("Propose three different caching strategies for user profile data using Redis, explaining the trade-offs for each in terms of performance, cost and complexity.")
Eliminate the tedium of documenting your work. ("Generate clear, concise documentation for this function in the Markdown format, explaining each parameter and what the function returns.")
3. Fostering A Culture Of Improvement
Craftsmanship is a team sport. Elevating your skills in isolation has limited impact; the goal is to raise the quality of the entire team.
Create a dedicated Slack or Teams channel where developers can share great code, discuss challenging refactoring problems and post effective AI prompts.
Once a month, have a developer share a 20-minute presentation on a single craftsmanship topic, from advanced error handling to using AI for better testing.
Work as a team to create governance documents and a library of "golden path" code examples for your key architectural patterns. This allows you to integrate AI tools to generate code that is already aligned with your team's specific style.
Actively building the skills of a code craftsperson is the key to excelling in the world of AI.
4. Go Beyond The Stack: Redefining Your Boundaries
The rise of AI coding tools isn't just about writing code faster; it's about expanding what you can imagine and build. These tools remove the traditional boundaries between languages, frameworks and even entire tech stacks.
AI dramatically reduces the ramp-up time on new technology, unlocking potential that used to take months to build. This means you are no longer limited by your primary expertise. You can now confidently explore systems you never dared to touch and ship features in areas you once tiptoed around.
With new tools at your fingertips, the boundaries of development are dissolving. Explore new domains, deepen your impact and go beyond what you once thought possible.
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