The AI Revolution: Transforming Software Development

The Yeti team thrives on experimenting with new technologies and exploring their potential to enhance our development processes, so when a recent wave of AI-powered tools became available, we eagerly jumped in.

Before long it was abundantly clear that AI has the potential to completely reshape our development workflow; streamlining our processes, boosting productivity, and sparking new levels of innovation within the team. AI is indeed redefining how we create exceptional products.

As we continue to integrate new AI tools into our workflow, our development team is consistently saying goodbye to the mundane, repetitive tasks that once slowed them down. With AI as their trusted coding companion, they can now focus on innovation and building next-level applications—achieving results in a fraction of the time.

In our 14 years as a development agency, nothing has revolutionized our approach to work more than the recent advent of AI. To be sure, this isn't just a trend; AI is a powerful force that can empower developers to push boundaries and redefine what’s possible. If you’re ready to transform your development process, keep reading as we share the AI tools and techniques that are changing how we write, test, and understand cod

If you enjoy this article, don't miss the rest of the series:
Part One (AI for Product Design)
Part Three (AI for Project Management)

Code Generation

One prominent AI use case is code generation and autocompletion. AI-powered code editor tools, such as Tabnine, and Github CoPilot have improved the coding experience by using advanced machine learning algorithms to suggest code snippets, provide autocompletion, and assist developers in writing code. These tools analyze code patterns, understand context, and offer intelligent recommendations that significantly enhance productivity and reduce coding errors.

By harnessing the power of AI as their coding companion, developers can focus on solving complex problems and building innovative solutions with greater speed and accuracy. With its ability to code so intelligently and so quickly, AI tools remove much of the redundant work developers  face day to day.

Bug Testing and Bug Squashing

Detecting and fixing bugs is an essential part of the software development process, and AI-driven platforms have emerged to provide valuable support in this area. One such platform is DeepCode , which utilizes advanced algorithms to analyze codebases and detect potential bugs. By leveraging the power of AI, DeepCode goes beyond traditional static analysis and provides developers with actionable recommendations for improvement. The platform uses machine learning techniques to identify patterns, compare code with known bug patterns, and highlight potential vulnerabilities that might otherwise go unnoticed. With the help of DeepCode, developers can proactively identify and address bugs, leading to enhanced code quality and more reliable applications.

AI platforms like DeepCode not only help you locate bugs while you're writing code -  it also has the ability to write tests that run every time a pull request is made - and will alert you if the test fails - ensuring that critical parts of the code are covered by tests.  This allows devs to stay focused on building all the cool features clients love, while AI quickly creates tests for ensuring that code continues to work in perpetuity.

In addition to bug detection, AI-driven platforms like DeepCode continuously learn from user feedback and code patterns to improve their detection accuracy over time. As developers interact with the platform and provide feedback on the identified issues, DeepCode's AI algorithms adapt and refine their analysis, becoming more effective at identifying bugs specific to the project's context. This iterative learning process enhances the platform's ability to provide relevant and actionable recommendations, enabling developers to make informed decisions and produce higher-quality code.

Onboarding

Keeping up with multiple projects and understanding complex codebases can be a daunting task for developers. Luckily, AI-driven code explanation tools like Cody AI are revolutionizing the way developers understand and navigate complex codebases, with their ability to analyze and interpret code snippets or entire files, offering high-level explanations of their function.

When using Cody AI, developers can simply highlight a piece of code or a file and prompt the assistant to explain what is occurring within it. Leveraging its vast knowledge base, Cody meticulously searches through the code and relevant files to gather contextual information.

Once the analysis is complete, it generates a comprehensive answer that elucidates the code's overall purpose and functionality. This capability proves particularly beneficial for developers transitioning between different projects, as it helps them quickly grasp the inner workings of unfamiliar codebases, minimizing the learning curve and enabling smoother onboarding experiences.

Previously, developers would have to invest considerable time and effort in manually studying complex codebases, deciphering intricate algorithms, and understanding the underlying logic. With AI, these challenges are significantly mitigated, as it efficiently summarizes the code's essence, allowing developers to rapidly familiarize themselves with its key components. As a result, developers can seamlessly transition between projects, accelerating the development cycle and reducing time wasted on unnecessary trial and error.

Development Mentorship with ChatGPT

One of the ways the Yeti developers have leveraged ChatGPT is by using it as a development mentor. It serves as a virtual guide that can answer questions about various tech stacks, programming languages, and computer science concepts. When faced with a technical hurdle or a lack of clarity, developers can turn to ChatGPT to gain insights and receive explanations that help them move forward with confidence.

Code Review

Developers can use ChatGpt for code review by running their code through the platform  and prompting it to provide feedback and suggestions for improvement. Though completing manual reviews is still necessary, developers are saved the trouble of code reviewers pointing out minor flaws or obvious mistakes, by  allowing AI to review their code first, saving significant time and effort.

The feedback received from ChatGPT can help identify potential issues and improve code readability, leading to more robust and maintainable software.

Highly Personalized Assistance:

ChatGPT's capabilities extend beyond general development knowledge and code reviews. It can act as a highly personalized search engine, tailored to the specific needs of developers. Instead of resorting to generalized online searches, developers can directly ask ChatGPT for assistance in summarizing documentation and other online resources to answer their questions quickly.

By providing ChatGPT with detailed information about the project, desired functionality, and tech stack, developers can receive code snippets or guidance that precisely address their needs. This personalized approach saves time and delivers solutions that are customized to the project at hand, ensuring greater accuracy and efficiency.

Debugging Code Issues

ChatGPT is also very effective at helping debug issues in code. By prompting ChatGPT with sufficient context -  including the code/error message - the tool will often be able to correctly identify the potential problem. Below is a step by step guide for using ChatGPT for debugging code issues: 

Create a Prompt that includes: 

• A high-level description of the project itself. It should be  a broad overview of the system or application you're working on and can include its purpose, technologies being used, architectural patterns involved etc.
  
  
• The task/ticket that you're working on.  This involves specifying what you're currently trying to do. It could be a new feature, bug fix, or any other task that you're trying to accomplish.
  
  
• Specifically what you want it to help generate. You want to be as specific as possible about the code you need. What function should it perform? How should it interact with other parts of the codebase? What are the expected inputs and outputs?
  
  
• Add any important context, such as util functions, relevant interfaces/types. Be sure to Include any relevant context that could help improve the quality of the code generated,  might including available libraries, already defined functions, coding standards or guidelines, or relevant data types and structures.

Iterate:

• Read and review the generated code and look for any obvious issues, misunderstandings, and/or errors. Check for logical errors, compliance with coding standards, and whether it meets the requirements outlined in the prompt.
  
  
• Try using the code and describe any unexpected behaviors to ChatGPT - if any errors occur, you can directly copy and paste them into the chat for help: Next, run the code and see if it functions as expected. If you encounter issues, describe these to the AI, or even directly paste error messages or problematic code snippets. This will allow the AI to understand the problem and help troubleshoot.
  
  
• Continue going back and forth until you're happy with the result: This process is iterative. You might need to go back and forth, refining your prompt and running the code, until you get a solution that meets your requirements.

The recent emergence of AI has revolutionized the development landscape, offering a range of AI-powered tools that streamline processes, boost productivity, and drive innovation. At Yeti, we encourage developers to embrace AI tools as a coding companion and embrace a future where their work is elevated, productivity is enhanced, and software development reaches new heights.

if you find this article to be informative, don't miss Part One and Part Three of the series!

Are you considering building an AI powered application? The Yeti team is currently taking a deep dive into AI technology and the many ways it can be integrated into meaningful software -  and we’d love to chat with you about your project!