I am working in software development and AI is reshaping the entire industry by enabling fast implementation and deliveries. Everyone that I know is buzzing about the power of AI and how they affected and improved their work. I am using AI as well in personal projects and what it can do is impressive. And than at work, my boss broadcasted a message to us: "In our team it is forbidden to use AI". It is like swimming against the current, when everything is evolving around, you chose to stay still and continue with doing things traditionally. I don't know where this comes from, but it simply doesn't make sense. How can you say something like this today when AI is changing everything whether we like it or not? Well, I guess if you are a boss you can do that.
Forbidden for some, but not also for others
So for me when I saw this I felt like I am driving with the hand brake on. Whenever I go to a beer with my friends, big portion of the discussion is about AI and how each of us is using it. And myself I am coming saying that we are not allowed to use it... that's crazy. That's the path to be unemployable anywhere in the world. And the thing is that it is not even fully true. He broadcasted this message, while in the same time on people he favors he obtaining subscriptions to use AI. That simply shows what kind of guy he is.
Alternative is to use it on our own
As an engineer you cannot stay still when everything is moving around you. So the only alternative that many applied in this case is to use AI on our own, meaning to pay for subscriptions ourselves and simply learn and improve on our own. It is not the right solution, but it is one that will let you achieve complex tasks and not get left behind by this technological revolution. Besides completing the task there is the process of learning on how to use AI the right way, use agents and that can be done mostly through experiences. So if you stay away from this tech, we risk getting us of the game. And than it will be very hard to get employed anywhere else in the world.
AI gets things done faster
The truth about AI and my experience with it is that it help to perform things faster and deliver on the spot. Luckily for me I am the kind of person that needs to understand things low level and when I've started using AI it was easy to understand what he does because of that. I am able to provide him clear instructions of what I want to achieve because of this deep understanding. And once he implements what I need, because of the same deep understanding I am able to check and test that he did what I precisely needed. I am using AI as a tool to achieve specific tasks and I am limiting it affecting broadly the work and system that I am working on. This makes it more manageable and I am able to control the output and have confidence in it.
AI evolution is lifting every domain in the world and software development might be at its center. Hearing the words that "in our team it is forbidden to use AI" it is like you are getting a red card in football and you need to get out of the field and watch the game from the sidelines. But by accepting this it might not be only this game that you watch from the sidelines, but might be any game as there will be other better "players" that will take the show. So to this all we can do for now is to use AI on our own, pay for it and try to keep up. Probably things will change as within management others will see if you try to stop the strategy of the company, but until that happens that's all we could do. So I believe this will be solved in the next period, but it is also upon us to bring up the benefits and simply speak our mind that when all the others are using, we should it also in order to achieve better results at our work.