AI, Ashby Engineering, and the future

12 hours ago

Over half of Ashby's new production code since August 2025 is AI-generated, with no increase in customer issues or regressions in code quality, velocity, or onboarding.
AI is reducing the cost of code production but emphasizes the increasing importance of human judgment, empathy, and customer understanding for engineers.
Two ground rules are established: empathy cannot be replaced by AI, and engineers remain responsible for what they ship, requiring increased skepticism and critical thinking.
Working with LLMs involves two modes: sidekick mode for high-risk tasks with human oversight, and delegate mode for low-risk tasks like prototyping.
Ashby invests in AI tooling, education, and safety layers (e.g., linters, automated reviews, tests) to ensure high-quality code while reducing human burden.
Future focus includes optimizing code reviews for high-value aspects like abstraction sensibility and investing in automated verification (e.g., tests, static analysis) as writing becomes cheaper.
Code quality is more critical than ever, as messy codebases degrade AI-generated output, and customer understanding is now a core engineering skill for effective problem-solving.

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