The defining technology of this decade isn't hard to name: Artificial Intelligence. From chatbots that sometimes miss the mark to impressively capable multi-modal AI agents that can navigate computer interfaces (which raises an intriguing question: how long until AI starts developing its own AI? What do we even call that? Second-degree AI? AI-squared?), this technology has become impossible to ignore and essential to embrace.
At Stably, we've fully embraced this AI revolution, using it to dramatically boost our productivity and ship features at an unprecedented pace. Let me walk you through how we harness various AI tools to achieve what previously would have required an entire office of developers.
Every developer on our team keeps an AI chatbot open while coding. While we generally prefer Claude (Anthropic's latest language model), other modern options like GPT-4, Llama 2, or Gemini could serve equally well. But what makes this "coding buddy" so invaluable?
First, it serves as an infinitely patient rubber duck debugging partner. When you're stuck on a particularly thorny problem, the process of thoroughly explaining it to the AI – including all the context, previous attempts, and system constraints – often leads to that "aha!" moment before you even finish typing. The act of structured explanation forces you to examine your assumptions and often reveals the solution.
Beyond debugging, these AI assistants excel at making complex documentation accessible. When faced with dense technical specifications, we simply ask them to "explain like I'm five." They'll reframe the concepts using simpler language and relatable analogies, making even the most complex systems comprehensible.
Inside our development environment, we leverage AI through either GitHub Copilot or Cursor. These tools fundamentally serve the same purpose: they understand your codebase context and offer real-time suggestions while you code. Think of them as extremely knowledgeable pair programmers who can predict what you're trying to achieve.
Our team has ongoing friendly debates about which tool is superior (with a slight lean toward Cursor), but everyone agrees on one thing: these tools significantly accelerate development. While they're not infallible – especially when dealing with particularly complex or unconventional code – their success rate makes them indispensable.
Consider this scenario: you're implementing a new feature that requires parsing complex JSON data. Instead of consulting documentation about string manipulation methods or JSON parsing libraries, these tools can suggest complete code blocks based on your context. They might even catch edge cases you hadn't considered, like handling malformed JSON or implementing error recovery.
Technical documentation often feels like a necessary evil – crucial for project maintenance but time-consuming to create. This is where Notion AI has become our secret weapon. Since our documentation lives in Notion, we leverage its AI capabilities to generate initial drafts, polish existing documentation, and even create marketing copy.
The AI excels at taking rough technical notes and transforming them into clear, structured documentation. It can expand bullet points into detailed explanations, suggest better organization for complex topics, and even identify areas where additional clarification might be needed. This same capability helps us create everything from user guides to API documentation, ensuring consistency and clarity across all our materials.
The landscape of software development has fundamentally changed. The “notion” (see what I did there) that you need a large team of developers to build and maintain a robust product is becoming outdated. With these AI tools acting as force multipliers, we're seeing increasing emergence of what were once called "10x engineers" – not because they work ten times harder, but because they leverage AI to work ten times smarter.
These tools don't replace human creativity and judgment; they amplify them. They handle the routine aspects of development – like boilerplate code, basic documentation, and simple debugging – freeing developers to focus on the challenging, creative aspects of building great software.
Want to see how this AI-augmented development approach translates into better testing tools? Try Stably and experience firsthand how our AI-powered testing platform makes creating and maintaining tests easier than ever. Our rapid development cycle, powered by these AI tools, means you'll continuously get new features that make your testing more efficient and reliable.
The future of development is here, and it's AI-augmented. Are you ready to be part of it? 🚀
