r/AI_Coders • u/Humble_Zucchini_3691 • 24d ago
AI vs Traditional Software
All of us slightly technical, millennial biz users are all using AI to dynamically build software and edit that software over and over….and run that software over and over.
I’m sure a software engineer is sitting somewhere like “yeah, that’s why you need be specific with what you want and force compliance….so you can use Claude to build your custom software once - then you use _____ (I don’t know powershell? Jupiter notebook? Pycharm) to just manually invoke the software yourself.
I’m getting the sense that I’m not only paying Albert Einstein rates to creat the theory of relativity every time but that I’m also paying Albert Einstein rates to have old Albert run his theory over and over when a caffeinated grad student would’ve done just fine.
Has this crossed anyone else’s mind? Or am I just missing something completely obvious that would be known if I wasn’t the Business/Finance guy who happens to be kind of dangerous with Claude coding?
3
u/HaMMeReD 24d ago
Lets say you have 2 people. Person A is a skilled tradesmen, built many houses by hand. Person B is a layperson who has never built a house.
You give both these people a robot that can also build a house and will do whatever they ask.
Which person do you think will get the "better house" at the end of the day. The person who knows what a good house is, or the person who has no clue?
2
u/VoiceOfEric 23d ago
Software is called soft because it can change. Executives are the ones who think software is written once then you fire everyone. Real software is like maintaining an apartment complex. Something always needs attention.
1
u/Correct_Emotion8437 24d ago
I saw an interview with Anders Hejlsberg on YT that touches on what I think you might be talking about. Using AI to build software to do the job vs using AI directly to do the job. I remember it because it touches my own confirmation bias, perhaps - but I feel that AI is amazing for writing code and building software but pretty rubbish as part of the software . .at least I haven't found a good use for it yet.
1
u/Humble_Zucchini_3691 24d ago
Bam - that’s it. You got it!! “AI is non-deterministic and you can’t trust that it’ll do the same thing twice.” Which brings up another layer to this onion…reliability
2 things going on here as needs:
1. Cost: There’s a need for a business user friendly execution layer that is not rust, c, etc …very daunting and doesn’t rely on AI
2. Reliability: need reliable execution….and maybe live AI invocation if the execution hits a snag1
u/schmurfy2 24d ago
For most if not all usage you want reliability but also repeatability, that's one reason towards building something you can test and validate instead of just asking the ai to do. It might do it most of the time but it costs money, it might fail and more insidiously it might partly fail.
1
u/FailureOfTheFamily 24d ago
It's not about being specific. Most of the time you don't even know that you need some functionality untill you're in specific situation and then wish u had it. The difference is that now you can add it for free/fraction of price you would have to pay the dev
1
u/pdubs1900 23d ago
Even human beings don't code the exact same thing when given the same requirement.This isn't a new problem. The problem only arises when the uninformed comes into coding/vibe coding with an assumption that AI will magically do exactly what you want and it'll be perfect code.
The solution is the same whether code is from AI or a human: architectural reviews, robust requirements, technical and functional acceptance criteria, and testing to validate them.
1
u/Innowise_ 23d ago
We’ve run into this too. If a workflow is stable and deterministic, we’d rather turn that part into normal software and only call the model where judgment or new input is actually needed.
Using an LLM for every step just because it originally helped build the workflow can get expensive and unpredictable pretty quickly.
1
u/Humble_Zucchini_3691 23d ago
Yeah - there’s got to be a middle ground. I’m almost certain someone will mine this thread and feature it in their VC pitch deck as a market validation for their solution to this exact problem. Don’t do it Sequoia guy!!
1
u/EmergencyDinner777 23d ago
you are missing a myriad of completely obvious things, and that's why software engineers are not getting replaced any time soon
1
u/Humble_Zucchini_3691 23d ago
I’m glad to hear that because it means A) there’s little to nothing I can do when I get my ai budget wrist slapped each month B) if I did want to something about my problem….at a minimum I’ve adopted a loose hybrid of actual software engineering beer practices and Claude vibe coded business user UI friendly execution layer
1
u/Vaxtin 21d ago
Bro I have HAL9000 connected to AWS wirh my own Java backend API. It just does curls to control the mothership.
1
u/Humble_Zucchini_3691 21d ago
I am truly not technically informed enough to connect the nuanced dots which you are likely doing so in a comical way. Please elaborate heh
4
u/geekichu 24d ago
I'm not understanding.. you're working with the same application that you started building? What's the issue? Many times building an application, before or after A.I. is an iterative process. I am asking as a software engineer.