The author, with experience in leading AI engineering teams, criticizes the AI coding revolution as a productivity mirage.
While developers spend most of their time on non-coding tasks, AI tools focus on marginal speed improvements in coding.
The '80% problem' in the industry refers to AI tools providing quick solutions for most tasks but struggling with the final 20% that requires human expertise.
AI tools create a dopamine hit of productivity initially but fail to deliver consistent improvement in delivery metrics, as observed by many CTOs.
Developers end up serving AI tools, ferrying context between systems and cleaning up code, leading to new forms of drudgery and technical debt.
To address the issue, CTOs are advised to focus on measurable metrics, prioritize quality over speed, and widen the scope of optimization.
The article emphasizes the importance of eliminating entire steps from processes rather than just optimizing individual tasks.
Companies like Stripe and Netflix excel by streamlining code reviews, testing automation, and removing handoffs between teams, gaining a strategic advantage.
The call-to-action is to treat AI as a system completing entire tasks, measure success through meaningful metrics, and demand AI to adapt to established processes.
The author stresses the need to optimize what truly matters in AI-driven software development to stay competitive and lead in the market.
The article warns that time is running out for companies to embrace a proactive approach towards AI utilization in software development.