How to turn AI from a random code generator into a reliable teammate
Most software engineers feel AI is random and slows down their work. Learn to steer AI with steering docs, spec-style prompts, and iterative loops to ship faster.
Most engineers I talk to treat AI like a slot machine. Some days it writes a good function, other days it hallucinates code and deletes all the tests so the build succeeds (yes, I’ve seen this multiple times). It feels random, so you end up using it because it seems to be the best practice, but not trusting it, so sometimes it feels like it slows you down.
The truth is simple. Productive engineers do not hope AI gets it right. They steer it. They decide the architecture, the data flow, and the definitions of done. AI only fills in the boring parts at high speed.
You do not need to become an AI researcher for this. You need a different way to think about AI in your daily work. A mental model, a small set of rules, and a workflow you can run on every ticket. That’s what you’ll find in this article (🎁 and a checklist for paid subs with tactical actions)
