AI Insights: Our Team’s Perspectives

Welcome to our AI exploration 🚀  We’ve had a chat with some of our team members to understand what they think about AI. They’ve shared their thoughts on what they’re curious about, what problems they’d like to solve, and how they feel about AI’s future. Join us as we explore their perspectives on AI.

What aspect of ai’s future in software development are you most curious about?

Carlos F.: The evolution of AI in software development is certainly a hot topic. I am curious about how it will integrate into the entire software development lifecycle. To what extent will AI be able to automate project management, testing, and debugging? At this point, it seems to already be able to handle junior-level tasks to some extent. I’m not sure if it will ever be able to create a good system architecture to solve a specific problem and code up to the best standards in the industry.

Nuno A.: What I’m most curious about is how AI can help determine the errors that occur when you don’t really understand what they mean or how they happen. As a developer, you lose a lot of time searching the internet trying to figure out what a particular error means since its message is too vague or it’s so specific to your code that there’s no real help online. It would be interesting to see some AI that would “look” at what you are trying to do and from the error message and debug tools gives you an accurate reason for that error. “The app crashed because the variable abc is null due to the library you are using being incompatible with the latest SDK, not because you forgot to initialize it like the error message is pointing at,” for example.

Tiago M.: I’m intrigued by the future of AI in software development. AI’s capabilities have been significantly improving, and we’re already seeing AI agents becoming increasingly capable of producing solutions autonomously. This could effectively change the paradigm of software development, as an AI agent can produce code infinitely faster compared to a human developer. For now, human input is still necessary to guarantee the quality of the code produced, but this could change in the not-too-distant future. Developers may end up being AI operators, using these agents to reduce the time and resources needed to develop software.

If you could solve one problem using ai, what would it be and why?

Ângelo P.: I think that AI could be very useful in the agriculture area, especially if working together with robots. A problem that exists nowadays in many crops is how to get rid of weeds. A solution that would tackle this problem would be very interesting and it would have an impact worldwide.

Nuno A.: Writing and executing tests. The developer/QA needs a long time to write and run meaningful tests to test their products. Most of the tests will only cover the “normal way” to use the app and small “problems” that might happen. It’s almost impossible to take all scenarios. The AI could look at the code and after a small input from the developer/QA, it could write its own meaningful tests and run them with multiple personas and devices such as a 70-year-old man with a 7” tablet, a kid with an old device with a broken screen, a person who keeps swapping apps, etc., and see if any errors or crashes happen.

Looking towards the future of ai in our field, do you find yourself more excited or apprehensive?

Ângelo P.: I find myself more apprehensive; from what I’ve heard, AI could possibly lead to job losses in software development. There are already some examples of AI software that can program by themselves. I’m not sure if in 15 years or so most software developers won’t be replaced by AI.

Carlos F.: A bit of both. The proliferation of AI is like a new industrial revolution that is making future jobs harder to visualize and current ones easier. It is undeniable that it’s an extraordinary feat for humans to be able to have a conversation with an AI bot that remembers context and can answer almost anything. That same artificial intelligence can be a programming peer that helps troubleshoot issues in the code and can assist in writing an essay. Systems are becoming more automated, relying more and more on AI, making life easier for everyone. The human factor cannot be replaced since AI will rely on clear text/voice prompts to produce the desired output. However, if processes are streamlined enough and requirements are made very clear, a lot of expenses with more junior resources can probably be reduced. We are seeing a shift in an industry that is laying off software engineers and hiring data scientists and relocating investments to AI projects. At this point, no one knows for sure what the future holds and what some of the jobs for the new generation will be.

Nuno M.: I find myself between excitement and concern regarding the impact of AI in our field. The idea of AI taking over tasks faster makes me worry about how much less we might have to do and what it means for our workload. Maybe soon, people in our field will only need to work two days a week, just requesting and compiling on what AI replies to our requests. It’s interesting, but I’m not sure if I should be happy about finishing work so quickly or worried about what it means. Either way, we’ve got to keep an eye on AI, especially in software development. It can help us move forward, but we’ve also got to watch out for the risks. Hackers are getting better as AI improves, which means we’ve got to be extra careful about cybersecurity. But there are good things about AI too, especially in healthcare, for example. Progress is happening, but personally, I’m more worried than excited about where AI might lead us.

Tiago M.: Looking towards the future of AI in our field, I find myself both excited and apprehensive. I’m excited because AI is evolving much faster than most initially predicted, and we can already see its potential in several fields to perform everyday tasks easily and quickly, especially in software development. I don’t think AI will completely replace developers in the next couple of years, but the workflow will definitely change to include AI. As for the distant future, it’s hard to tell, but things could evolve in a way that will require a lot of adaptation from several industries, which will definitely have a big impact on many lives.

Thank you for joining us on this exploration of AI insights from our team. Keep an eye out for future discussions on emerging technologies. If you have any AI projects in mind, we’d love to discuss them with you.