--- title: AI made me a better engineering leader | daily.dev description: An engineering leader describes how AI tools improved leadership judgment rather than coding speed: using AI to draft imperfect first passes of architecture... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/ai-made-me-a-better-engineering-leader-ozljuwglh twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: AI made me a better engineering leader | daily.dev og:description: An engineering leader describes how AI tools improved leadership judgment rather than coding speed: using AI to draft imperfect first passes of architecture... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/ai-made-me-a-better-engineering-leader-ozljuwglh og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/ozLJuwgLh.png og:image:alt: AI made me a better engineering leader og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # AI made me a better engineering leader **[LeadDev](https://daily.dev/sources/leaddev)** · 9 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary An engineering leader describes how AI tools improved leadership judgment rather than coding speed: using AI to draft imperfect first passes of architecture decision records to sharpen her own reasoning, and to probe design assumptions before review meetings, catching a real multi-region rollout flaw involving incomplete data replication. She cites a METR study showing developers took 19% longer with AI while feeling 20% faster, cautioning against trusting perceived speed, alongside a Stack Overflow survey showing high individual productivity gains but only 17% reporting improved team collaboration. She proposes measuring whether reasoning surfaces earlier, assumptions get exposed sooner, and critical thinking spreads across teams rather than just individual throughput. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Does AI actually make experienced developers faster at coding tasks? Not necessarily. A randomized controlled trial by METR with 16 experienced open-source developers completing 246 real tasks found they took 19% longer when using AI, yet believed afterward that AI had made them about 20% faster. A February 2026 METR update found signals that newer tools may produce real speedups, though selection effects make the size hard to pin down. _Anyone weighing AI coding tools against gut feel can track productivity research like this on daily.dev._ ### Do AI coding agents improve team collaboration according to developer surveys? Not much, according to the 2025 Stack Overflow Developer Survey. About 70% of developers using AI agents said the tools reduced time spent on particular tasks and 69% reported higher individual productivity, but only 17% said the agents improved collaboration within their teams, suggesting faster individual work doesn't automatically translate into better collective judgment. _Teams deciding how to roll out AI agents can follow survey data like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [AI made me more productive. Why am I busier than ever?](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-made-me-more-productive-why-am-i-busier-than-ever--qbgids67s) · LeadDev · 1 upvotes · 1 comments --- Tags: [#ai](https://daily.dev/tags/ai), [#productivity](https://daily.dev/tags/productivity), [#leadership](https://daily.dev/tags/leadership) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-made-me-a-better-engineering-leader-ozljuwglh) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"AI made me a better engineering leader","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/ai-made-me-a-better-engineering-leader-ozljuwglh","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/ai-made-me-a-better-engineering-leader-ozljuwglh"},"datePublished":"2026-08-31T09:18:37.124Z","dateModified":"2026-08-31T09:19:01.229Z","description":"An engineering leader describes how AI tools improved leadership judgment rather than coding speed: using AI to draft imperfect first passes of architecture...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/61d33923e0774feca6dcd0872de37922?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/61d33923e0774feca6dcd0872de37922?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"LeadDev","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"LeadDev","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--u_Q34nzh--/f_auto,q_auto/v1774514111/logos/leaddev?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/leaddev"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/ai-made-me-a-better-engineering-leader-ozljuwglh","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"ai,productivity,leadership","timeRequired":"PT9M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"LeadDev","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/leaddev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"AI made me a better engineering leader"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/ai-made-me-a-better-engineering-leader-ozljuwglh#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Does AI actually make experienced developers faster at coding tasks?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Not necessarily. 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