What we are not talking about AI
enA reflection on the often overlooked emotional impacts of AI in developers' daily lives.
39 viewsAI, AI, AI... and AI. This is, without a doubt, the term that stands out the most in my daily life. It makes sense, since I work in tech. But amid all this hype, there's an important side that simply isn't being talked.
In my day-to-day, I'm constantly interacting with AI: refactoring functions, evaluating suggestions, cleaning up unnecessary code it generates, or gaining context in complex parts of the codebase. Still, I hadn't stopped to reflect, until now, on how this is impacting not just my career, but my life as a whole.
When we talk about AI, the conversation almost is around productivity and efficiency. And when are critics, it tends to stay within the technical realm. What rarely gets discussed is the emotional impact.
The truth is, we've integrated AI into our routines almost without questioning it. In many cases, it comes with the justification “we need more speed.” In more extreme environments, “if you don't use it, you're out.”
Two feelings have been standing out to me: anxiety and motivation (or the lack of it).
AI has already deeply transformed the development process. We are no longer the primary holders of knowledge and builders of solutions. We are increasingly becoming code reviewers and validators. It's a completely new model, one we've had to adapt to in a very short amount of time.
This sudden shift raises countless questions:
- How far can these models and agents evolve?
- Will AI replace the role of developers?
- Is the AI business model sustainable?
- Are we in an AI bubble? If so, when does it burst?
- Does AI actually increase productivity?
- Are teams delivering more, with quality?
- Is the market truly demanding all of this, or are we riding a hype wave to attract investors?
The new, by itself, already creates uncertainty. Now imagine all of this, with so many open questions. It's natural for anxiety levels to rise, to different degrees depending on the person.
When you no longer need to think deeply about a solution, your engagement with the creative process starts to fade. Gradually, the connection to what you're building weakens. The solution stops being something you created and becomes something you simply requested.
All it takes is a prompt, and the result shows up fast and easy.
Yes, it still needs to be reviewed. Even with high-quality outputs, mistakes happen. But this stage often becomes automatic: you validate, tweak, iterate, and move on, without real engagement, without connection to what's being built, without a sense of ownership.
Depending on your level of experience, you might think this sounds a bit extreme. After all, AI is still limited. It struggles with complex problems and lacks the context needed for decision-making, which is where developers remain essential. But I'm trying to broaden the reflection here, putting myself in the shoes of someone early in their career, where technical foundations are still being formed.
Even if AI is just a tool, or for the more skeptical, a fancy autocomplete, for beginners, living with this uncertainty and feeling that opportunities might be threatened by AI can be, at the very least, stressful. If experienced developers are already feeling the impact, imagine those who don't yet have the proficiency to critically evaluate the outputs.
AI hasn't just changed the way we build software. It has changed the way we live. Because at the end of the day, it's not so easy to just “switch off.” You carry the pressure, the frustrations, and the emotional weight of the challenges you face.
We're talking a lot about AI.
But we're not talking about what matters most: how is all of this affecting you?
In the end, I hope we can gradually answer these questions and, more importantly, find a healthier way to balance AI in our lives. Because whether we like it or not, it's already part of our routine.