AI Coding Assistants: Hype vs. Reality

Many developers claim AI coding assistants boost productivity 5-10x, but a study of nearly 800 engineers reveals a different story. The research found no significant improvement in efficiency metrics; in fact, AI assistant use led to a 41% increase in bugs. While helpful for documentation, function lookup, and API understanding, these tools struggle with medium-sized or complex codebases. The author suggests they're more like enhanced search engines, providing a roughly 10% productivity increase, far less than often touted. Modal editors may even offer greater coding speed improvements than inline AI completion.