Are Developers Getting Lazy Because of AI?

People have been arguing about "lazy developers" for years. Whenever a new tool makes coding easier (like going from low-level to high-level languages), older programmers say it will make new coders weak. Now AI is the new target. But this feels different. It's not just a new tool. It might change what coding really is. I see this worry in online forums, and I feel it too. Am I letting AI do thinking that I should do myself?

Recently, I tried something. I built the same project twice: once with AI help, and once without. The AI version was faster to make, of course. But when I looked at both a week later, I found something surprising. The AI-helped version had better design and handled more edge cases. Why? Because I wasn't wasting brain power on small details. I was thinking about the big picture instead. I realized, "I'm not using AI to stop thinking. I'm using it to think about more important things." This changed how I see productive coding in 2025.

My neighbor's son is learning to code. He showed me his website project. It was really good. I asked, "Did AI build this for you?" His answer was smart: "I used AI to help me learn hard parts, then I built everything myself to make sure I really understood it." That helped me see clearly. The difference between lazy and productive isn't about using AI or not. It's about how you use it. Am I using AI instead of understanding the code? Or am I using AI to help me understand better? This is like using a calculator to avoid math versus using it to solve harder math problems.

Recently I got stuck on a hard problem and asked a LLM for help. I was trying to optimize a database query that was timing out with large datasets. This was a classic N+1 query problem in my Node.js API. The AI suggested a solution using eager loading with a complex JOIN statement. What happened next was interesting. I saw a mistake in the AI's solution right away. It was trying to use SQL syntax that wasn't compatible with my NoSQL database! I found myself explaining why it wouldn't work for my specific problem and how MongoDB's aggregation pipeline needed a completely different approach. This kind of critical thinking isn't laziness. It required me to understand both what the AI was suggesting AND why it wouldn't work in my specific tech stack. It's exactly what good programming has always needed. Maybe the real question isn't if AI makes developers lazy. Maybe it's about how AI helps average coders become good and helps good coders become great. As coding changes, holding onto old ideas about skill might be the real laziness.

How AI Changed My Work

After watching my work habits for three months, here's what I found: I switched between tasks 40% less when using AI. Less time looking up documentation meant I could focus better and longer. I built working prototypes much faster. This let me get real user feedback sooner instead of just guessing what users want. Bug fixes that used to take hours sometimes took minutes with AI help. Not because AI is smarter than me, but because it can quickly find patterns in thousands of similar problems that would take me hours to see.

• Learning new things became easier. I learned three new frameworks this year instead of just one, without the usual frustration
• Less tired at the end of the day. I had more energy for creative thinking because I didn't waste mental energy remembering small details

When AI Becomes a Problem

I've seen several bad habits in myself and other developers: The "black box accepter" who uses AI code without checking if it's good or makes sense. The "basics skipper" who never learns important coding principles, just copies solutions. The "prompt perfectionist" who spends more time writing perfect AI instructions than understanding their code. And maybe worst, the "big picture avoider" who builds without understanding how all the parts work together, creating problems that will be hard to fix later.

All these habits use AI to replace thinking rather than enhance thinking. This is a key difference between developers who will succeed and those who won't. The funny thing is that using AI well actually requires more advanced thinking, not less. It needs you to think about how you code, not just write code. In many ways, AI tools are making the standard for good development higher, not lower.

Try This Yourself

Pick a problem you usually solve with AI help. First solve it without AI, then solve it with AI. Compare not just which was faster, but look at which solution is better and which one you understand better. What did you learn? What surprised you? Your experience could help all of us learn how to work better in this new way.