The AI Code Review Disconnect: Author Tools vs. Reviewer Tools

Many engineering teams buy AI code review tools hoping to speed up the process, but often find they're not solving the core problem: senior engineers spending too much time reviewing pull requests. While these tools excel at improving code quality *before* review, they don't fundamentally change the reviewer's experience. The author argues that most tools are author-focused, not reviewer-focused. The ideal solution involves a combination of both: author-focused tools for pre-review improvements and reviewer-focused tools to streamline the actual review process itself.