The narrative around AI coding tools is seductive: AI will replace developers. Junior engineers are obsolete. Soon we'll just describe what we want and the AI will build it.
We've been in the trenches with AI coding tools for over a year now. Here's what we've actually learned.
AI Makes Senior Engineers More Valuable, Not Less
The teams shipping the fastest aren't the ones with the most AI tools. They're the ones with senior engineers who know how to wield AI tools effectively.
A senior engineer using Cursor or Claude can produce in a day what used to take a week. Not because the AI writes perfect code — but because the senior engineer knows which suggestions to accept, which to modify, and which to reject entirely.
Junior engineers using the same tools often ship faster too — but they ship more bugs, more security vulnerabilities, and more technical debt. They don't have the pattern recognition to spot when the AI generates code that works but is architecturally wrong.
The 3x Framework
Here's the framework we use at Black Gibbon to get 3x throughput without 3x risk:
AI generates. The first draft of any feature, function, or module is AI-generated. This handles the boilerplate, the standard patterns, and the initial structure.
Humans review. Every AI-generated PR gets a human review focused on: security, error handling, performance implications, and architectural fit. This isn't a rubber stamp — our reviewers reject or significantly modify about 30% of AI output.
AI tests. After human review, AI generates test cases — including edge cases the original generation missed. The human reviewer verifies test coverage and adds scenarios the AI didn't consider.
Humans decide. Architecture decisions, technology choices, data model design, and API contracts are human decisions. AI can propose options, but the judgment call stays with experienced engineers.
The Results
Across our client projects, this framework delivers:
- 3x faster feature development compared to fully manual coding
The future isn't AI replacing developers. It's AI amplifying the best developers. The companies that understand this will build better products, faster, with fewer defects.