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Ask HN: By what percentage has AI changed your output as a software engineer?
(news.ycombinator.com)
this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2025
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Me too, at least for frontend web development. I do a lot of backend but when I need a frontend screen, AI works exceptionally well.
You might think so if you're not a frontend dev 🫣
Just because you can't use a tool to accomplish your tasks doesn't mean that others can't.
Just because it produces a desirable output on the surface doesn't mean the produced code is maintainable (or bug free; as a non frontend dev it might be difficult to know what to test for as well).
Agreed. It’s funny to talk to people who haven’t figured out how to work AI into their workflow.
My day is full of pulling issues and making random content changes. I can say, “take this screenshot and lay it out using this page as an example.” And bob’s your fucking uncle it does it pretty perfectly.
My day is full of petting my cat and focusing on real work instead of laying out dumb shit for marketing.
Just laugh at the people who complain, they’ll be unemployed while you embrace change.
Funny you assume they haven't figured it out as opposed to just realized they don't need it for literally anything.
Define "real"? Not all web dev is "laying out dumb shit for marketing" as you imply you're doing for a living.
Maybe you're doing unimportant web dev work but I'm doing new, patented, award-winning, scientific web-based software that an AI would never be able to produce because it hasn't been done yet.
Your job is doing a bunch of stuff that's already been done a million times, I suppose(?), but you are very poor at putting yourself in others' shoes with the way you are so cocky and confidently incorrect about others' work situations.
I will not be unemployed for a long time, as a senior web dev. Haven't even needed to setup an AI agent at work because I produce results quickly enough anyway. 👍
I don't have a screenshot to go on either most of the time because I'm entrusted to come up with the solutions myself. It's not always so simple as your job.
Maybe now you understand how things work for someone else than yourself and you won't sound like such an elitist schmuck in the future. 👌
You sound very much like you’re going to lose your job within ~3 years.
That's all you got? I'll be fine. 😆
You sound replaceable af considering a machine can do your job.
Bet you'll be replaced within 3 years. 😉
Tell me how you’re unemployed without telling me you’re unemployed.
I'm very much employed, wtf lol. Tell me you know nothing about people or development without doing so.
OK, explain your job. What is the industry? What’s your stack? How long have you been doing it? The other developers that you work with, if any, how do they feel about AI?
Science, kind of. Multivariate data analysis (MVDA), with lots of large customers in pharma, but the science/math is applicable to any production field.
The current stack is just a React app hosted by a local server installed as part of the desktop software suite, but clients are free to install it independently with their own server stack setup.
I've been at this company for over two years, professional web dev for almost a decade, and teaching it in academia for almost a decade before that. And doing web dev in school and privately for almost a decade before that.
The other developers seem to have installed Microsoft's copilot, and every single one of them seem annoyed by it. It does a good job as a snippet producer but often has to be corrected for even such small tasks.
And they're not even web devs. I'm the only one in my team.
Well, copilot sucks.
Look, all bullshit aside, I’ve been an active and employed developer for 22 years. If you don’t learn how to embrace AI in your workflow you are going to be trampled by people who have. It might not be perfect now, but look how far it has come in just a few years. In a few more, it’s not going to be a “snippet producer.”
A long time ago, you might remember, we used to just put code into .js files and ftp them. Then build steps became a thing, and it changed how everything was produced and deployed, for the better! There were many developers who rejected this concept and continued on with things like jQuery, dozens of js files, working on the server, no local dev, etc. Those people either changed their thinking or they lost their jobs.
This is one of those times.
I'll install it when I need it. Like I said, I don't need it yet. I'm producing results quickly enough because I know exactly what I'm doing.
I'm going to waste more time chasing bugs that the AI produces than I will creating the code myself, trust me. At least right now, with our products.
When I need AI to keep up with the juniors, I'll consider it. 🙂
It’s not about keeping up with the juniors, it’s about keeping up with the seniors who got laid off because of the “economy” and are now flooding the market.
This happened to me about a year ago when my employer laid off the entire IT staff. Every interview I went on I was asked “how do you use AI?” At first I thought it was a trick question like “can you even do your job?”
But it wasn’t. They wanted to know if I had figured it out yet… and what I could teach them.
The idea that you’ll figure it out when you need it is the wrong path to be on. It’s going to happen, like it or not.
Yes it is. They are my only competition, because I am the senior. I also work for a consulting company, and we're the (senior) people who replace workers being laid off when the company realizes they actually needed that workforce. 👍
What's to "figure out"? You install it, you prompt it, and off you go (bug hunting).
That's why I'm confident enough that when I actually do need it, it still won't be more difficult than what it is now. When it's actually relevant for me, it'll probably be even more simple to use than it is now.
Yeah, you’ve got no idea how to use AI if that’s how you think it works. That’s last year bud. Good luck.
Okay, "bud", I'll be fine. I'll "figure it out".
You seem really nice, by the way. Keep petting your cat.
fuck me...
You mean to tell me AI agents aren't the latest fad? That that was "last year"? Go on and tell me what's so new that you're using then?
You’re like the kind of person who refuses to use code autocomplete.
And yes, I will pet my cat while you work all day because you haven’t figured out how to work artificial intelligence into your workflow properly. Keep in mind, we will make the same amount… I will just have a better quality of life.
Keep on yelling at clouds!
Wrong. So many things you've been wrong about in our correspondence. Yikes.
By the way, my god, what an awful personality you have? Nobody asked you into the conversation and you did nothing but act like a complete schmuck. I'm not surprised you live alone with a cat.
Tagging you as "Vibe-coding schmuck". Enjoy your cat who will die in a few years while I will come back from work every day (from my home office) to a loving wife and two great kids who are all my favorite people in the world.
Sayonara. 🫡
Bro, look at your own personality. Picking fights and using emojis as a weapon? Like a child.
Who said I live alone with a cat? lol. I just have a cat, and it likes to be pet. I’m also using as a metaphor for not spending my day working. (You would know that if you had a brain)
And sweetheart, I work from home too… for I’m sure relatively the same amount you… yet I work 20 hours at best because I’m smart.
The fact that you’re getting so upset shows me I’m right.
Adios!
You still haven't answered what's newer than AI agents.
And for the record, you don't think this is picking a fight? Or at least acting like an immature peace of shit? Honestly. GTFOOH. You're supposed to be a grown ass person.
https://vger.to/lemmy.cafe/comment/15147260
I'm not the one who picked the fight. You were acting like a smug POS from the start, and I tried to be nice but it was a doomed endeavor. And nobody is using emojis as "a weapon". Only you understand where that's coming from. Might align well with your twisted world view.
You using cat petting as a metaphor is not obvious lol. Just because it's obvious to you—the one saying it—doesn't mean a person who is not inside your brain can be considered as having no brain. You even have a cat. It's not very far-fetched a thing to do for an incel.
The fact that you think I'm upset shows me your delusions are just as predictable now as they were at the beginning of this dreadful correspondence with you.
I moved from Reddit to get away from elitist schmucks like you, among other reasons. Sad to see Lemmy getting more and more of you coming over as time goes on. Yuck.