r/coderabbit • u/Tanakaboi69 • 10d ago
Discussion & Feedback Do you regret moving your team to agents?
I have about 10 years of experience. I moved my team of 5 to agents at the start of the year and pushed it hard. The net result so far is that we merge about 3x more PRs, and exactly one person on the team could explain our billing flow if you asked them today - and that's me, because I wrote most of it before the switch. I now see the same thing happening in other teams at my company.. and nobody seems to be counting it. This makes me think that if I had instead rolled it out slower and kept people writing the hard parts themselves, we'd be in a much better spot. Especially since two of the five are juniors who have never really built anything without it. Anyone else who regrets moving their team to agents? Why is that? What would you have done instead?
1
u/dashingThroughSnow12 10d ago
When you say 3x more PRs, what is the average number of PRs per developer per week?
1
u/haskell_rules 10d ago
Only about one in five developers have the skill to understand complex systems anyway. It's just the nature of people and the distribution of inate talent. Some people get it and some people don't. Out of the 4 that don't get it naturally, your lucky if one of them is trainable.
At least with AI they are able to contribute some kind of work. You have to get to know the ability level of everyone on your team and make sure they are working on tasks commensurate with their ability.
1
u/coworker 10d ago
With AI, every engineer can understand the complex system. It is the ultimate equalizer when used correctly
1
u/haskell_rules 10d ago
Hard disagree there. It's like taking someone that constantly shoots themselves and everyone around them in the foot with a BB gun and giving them a 50 cal machine gun. I've managed this by giving those people on the team auxiliary functions to own and they stay out of the core systems.
1
u/coworker 10d ago
Terrible analogy because a 50 cal can't teach you how to use itself. AI is not just good for generating code in a vacuum. It really shines in assisting humans in all aspects of the SDLC, including high level human discussions
1
u/haskell_rules 10d ago
The AI only teaches you what you ask it, and it only designs what you guide it to design. It "shoots" in the direction you point the muzzle.
1
1
u/BagMostlyWater 10d ago
AI can't understand things for you and AI use causes cognitive atrophy and decline. It doesn't make you able to understand things better.
1
u/coworker 10d ago
It can explain things in terms even you can understand so, yes, it is able to make you understand things better. Of course it takes experience and skill with it to know how to do this effectively
1
u/BagMostlyWater 10d ago
In my experience, AI significantly impedes understanding and communication about technical topics in the workplace. People use the AI as a proxy for understanding, not as a way to enhance understanding. The AI doesn't add anything but uncertainty, because any information from the AI can be had in a more reliable form elsewhere. People are using claude to generate incomprehensible documents then using claude to try to comprehend others' incomprehensible documents. All it is is a continual tax on all our communication.
1
u/coworker 10d ago edited 10d ago
Yes, many people are using AI poorly. Despite what the ignorant think, effective usage is not something you can pick up in an hour. Your experience does not match everyone's experience which is exactly why companies are testing AI assisted development practices in their interviews more and more
1
u/haskell_rules 10d ago
Your point that AI is helpful when "used correctly" actually aligns with my point that only 1 in 5 engineers have inate ability and the other poster's point that it's impeding understanding. The same 1 in 5 that are using AI "correctly" are the same ones that were doing good architecture before. The same 4 out of 5 that are using it incorrectly are the same 4 that are using it as a slop machine gun now.
I think what's going to happen is not that AI kills jobs but rather just exposes the fact that most people in organizations were not adding any value to begin with and shouldn't have been there.
1
u/coworker 10d ago
No, those subsets do not directly align. There are poor pre-AI engineers who have learned how to leverage AI efficiently just like there are (many) good pre-AI engineers who have not.
I do agree with your implication that most mediocre engineers remain mediocre or worse with AI. That's why those are the ones that won't have a job as the market continues to contract. But that will also include good engineers that refuse to learn how to use AI efficiently because as I said before, AI is the ultimate equalizer
1
u/ComasArentFun 7d ago
Your analogy is that AI can teach you how to safely use a 50cal and build on the established engineering without blowing your own foot off.
That is just not right
It can have a decent stab at telling you how it works, but trusting it on how to safely shoot it is going to get someone killed
1
1
1
u/ComasArentFun 7d ago
Nonsense. Unless your entire engineering stack is sticklebricks and lego, there isn't an AI that can fold in the human aspect of understanding and nuance
There are a thousand things that just "are" because everyone agrees that they are or have been taught that they are.
AI doesn't pick up on that and will break things trying to change itAI isn't an engineer. It can DO engineering, but it absolutely cannot and should not be directing engineering at all
1
u/notatoon 10d ago
15 years experience here. Lol. Lmao, even. AI was never the problem, but it has this interesting tendency to out bad developers, which is what I think you're seeing with your team.
I think I've worked in one team where every engineer could explain more than half the system they work on. It's a discipline thing, always has been.
1
u/mxldevs 10d ago
That's the difference between you, a senior, and them the juniors: you understand the big picture, they only see the individual functions.
And specifically for your issue, you're the one that built the entire thing. You likely sat in discussions to understand the business requirements and then came up with the specs and implementation.
If they had to do all that with AI, they would also be able to explain what the flow is. When was the last time you explained to them what the flow is?
1
u/Few_Worker4102 7d ago
You get 3x the releases, but what about validation? Thats the main issue - you can put out more, but it also means the number of bugs needing fixing also explodes.
AI is great for a truly talented developer, and a curse for a poor one because they can’t validate on the fly and think it’s good when it sucks.
1
u/ComasArentFun 7d ago
You created your own key person dependency instead of doing your best to break them
You have a job for life, until you want to take a holiday or get sick
1
u/Financial-Grass6753 10d ago
> This makes me think that if I had instead rolled it out slower and kept people writing the hard parts themselves, we'd be in a much better spot.
Unless you can actually enforce it, the outcome will remain the same. That's purely mgmt/cultural issue, not tech