As a former programmer turned product manager, I recently ventured back into coding to create a proof of concept. Despite my lack of recent practice, the experience with AI tools was enlightening and transformative, drastically changing how I approached software development. This demonstrated a significant paradigm shift in efficiency and quality.

I aimed to capture events from my devices and pass them on to Power Automate workflows. Without AI, this task would have involved significant effort—researching tools and techniques, writing, and debugging code—likely taking five to eight hours. Given that this task was outside my core responsibilities, frustration would have been inevitable, and I might have abandoned the project. However, AI transformed my experience. It suggested using Selenium for web automation, helped generate code to capture and parse the webpage, create data transfer objects, and handle serialization. With AI, I quickly assembled functions and integrated them into my codebase, reducing development time to around two hours.

Another project involved creating a page to display product documentation from Contentful. I simply told AI my requirements, and it suggested content model types, provided HTML and JavaScript code, and gave options for different frameworks. I chose a simple JavaScript model, and within 30 minutes, I had a working proof of concept with translatable content.

These experiences highlight a crucial point: AI can drastically optimize the software development process. Tasks that once took hours can now be completed in a fraction of the time, with higher quality and less frustration. However, I’ve noticed that project estimates haven’t significantly adjusted. A task that once required eight hours can now realistically be completed in four hours or less with AI assistance. This suggests a need for the industry to reconsider its estimation models.

AI optimizes software development by reducing research time, automating repetitive coding tasks, and increasing accuracy while minimizing debugging time. This optimization allows us to deliver software faster and of higher quality. The integration of AI in software development is not just a novelty; it’s a necessity for modern efficiency. By adjusting project estimates to account for AI’s capabilities, we can align expectations with reality and harness the potential of these powerful tools fully.

Embracing AI can lead to more accurate project timelines, increased efficiency, and significant cost savings. Moreover, it’s vital to recognize that if you do not adopt these AI optimizations, others will. Competitors leveraging AI to streamline development processes will roll out software faster and with higher quality. This disparity means businesses that fail to adopt AI may face significant competitive disadvantages. In an industry where time to market is crucial, not leveraging AI could result in losing market share or even going out of business. The future of software development is here, and AI is leading the way. To stay competitive, embracing this change is essential to optimize development processes with AI.