{"id":45946,"date":"2023-06-23T09:57:34","date_gmt":"2023-06-23T16:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/?p=45946"},"modified":"2023-06-23T09:57:35","modified_gmt":"2023-06-23T16:57:35","slug":"ai-tools-programmers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.springboard.com\/blog\/software-engineering\/ai-tools-programmers\/","title":{"rendered":"6 AI Tools Programmers Need To Know"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With their keen problem-solving skills and love of productivity hacks (what are programming frameworks for, after all?), it makes perfect sense that developers would be one of the first tech professionals to embrace the rise of generative AI<\/a>. A recent GitHub survey found that 92%<\/a> of programmers already use AI tools. Seventy percent of respondents reported seeing benefits, such as improved code quality, faster output, and fewer production-level incidents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The growing prevalence of AI tooling may irrevocably change<\/a> how companies measure programmer productivity, moving away from code volume. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This could be a major win for developers, many of whom argue<\/a> that their performance reviews shouldn\u2019t hinge on the number of incidents developers resolve, but how<\/em> they handle bugs and other issues\u2014in other words, code quality over quantity. Developers only spend 32%<\/a> of their time writing new code or improving existing code. The rest is spent on code maintenance, testing, meetings, and other responsibilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGreat engineering isn\u2019t about pumping out tons of code,\u201d Laura Butler, CTO at Armoire, told GeekWire<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s about less code, shared components, using APIs and services that already exist, quality, and maintainability.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, for those who fear AI automating away<\/a> programming jobs, these aforementioned factors are things AI can\u2019t assist with. Instead, generative AI tools are best for brainstorming, documentation, generating boilerplate code, or reusing code snippets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen companies write software, the code is proprietary, so the most you can do with AI is use it to generate bits and pieces of code,\u201d says Jasmeet Singh, a senior software engineer at HashiCorp and a mentor for Springboard\u2019s Software Engineering Bootcamp<\/a>. \u201cYou can\u2019t ask ChatGPT to create a new version of Facebook for you. You might get the code for the login button or some other function, but you won\u2019t get a whole website.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That being said, AI-assisted software tools can help knowledgeable programmers<\/a> up-level their productivity and creative thinking. Here are the top AI tools you need to know about. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. AI coding assistants <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Remember when Microsoft Word first introduced its spellcheck feature? AI copilots function similarly, but they\u2019re far more sophisticated. Coding assistants use natural language processing (NLP) <\/a>to analyze code in the background and provide intelligent suggestions, flag errors, and generate code snippets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These tools typically integrate with popular Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) and offer features such as code completion, error detection, and code refactoring. They analyze context, syntax, and patterns to provide real-time feedback. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDevelopers can use AI to do straightforward tasks like create post-API or guest request API,\u201d says Peter Nsaka, a senior software engineer at Shopify and a mentor for Springboard\u2019s Software Engineering Bootcamp<\/a>. \u201cBut AI doesn\u2019t understand the nuances of business logic, which is where the human developer\u2019s knowledge is invaluable.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT<\/a> is a generalized generative AI tool\u2014meaning it was trained not only on lines of code but billions of webpages from the internet. However, it\u2019s surprisingly proficient at generating boilerplate code and rewriting code in different programming languages<\/a>. You can also copy-paste code snippets into ChatGPT and ask the bot to review the code for potential scalability issues or OS compatibility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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ChatGPT by @OpenAI<\/a> does really well with coding questions. Here I ask how to build a 3-column footer with Tailwind. I then follow-up and ask for a React version, more realistic copy, and mobile responsiveness. It nails it perfectly. pic.twitter.com\/lhhH9FHpld<\/a><\/p>— Gabe \ud83c\udfa3 (@gabe_ragland) November 30, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote>