--- title: How AI Is Changing Code Reviews & Software Development description: A historical narrative traces code review practices from Fagan inspections through pair programming, pull requests, CI/CD automation, and now AI-assisted... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/how-ai-is-changing-code-reviews-software-development-rzz31cwst twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: How AI Is Changing Code Reviews & Software Development | daily.dev og:description: A historical narrative traces code review practices from Fagan inspections through pair programming, pull requests, CI/CD automation, and now AI-assisted... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/how-ai-is-changing-code-reviews-software-development-rzz31cwst og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/rZZ31CwsT.png og:image:alt: How AI Is Changing Code Reviews & Software Development 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. # How AI Is Changing Code Reviews & Software Development **[IBM Technology](https://daily.dev/sources/ibmtechnology)** · 14 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A historical narrative traces code review practices from Fagan inspections through pair programming, pull requests, CI/CD automation, and now AI-assisted review. The piece argues AI is shifting review focus away from implementation details toward validating business outcomes and requirement fulfillment, with humans providing context and judgment while AI handles broad analysis, code generation, and automated checks. It frames this as an evolution from syntax reviews to consensus reviews to system reviews to outcome-based reviews. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### what is the Fagan inspection in software code review history The Fagan inspection is a formal, structured code and document review method created by IBM engineer Michael Fagan. Teams gathered in person and went through code and documentation line by line, with everyone contributing to spot defects. It was time-intensive but prioritized consistency and thoroughness over speed, predating agile pair programming and pull-request based review models. _Engineers tracing how review practices evolved into today's AI-assisted workflows can follow that history on daily.dev._ ### how is AI changing the role of human reviewers in code review AI is shifting human reviewers away from checking implementation details and toward setting context, making judgment calls, and evaluating trade-offs against business outcomes. AI takes on broad analysis of code, docs, architecture, merges, and automated checks, while humans compare AI output against business requirements and iterate through prompts rather than reviewing every line themselves. _Developers rethinking their review workflow as AI takes over more implementation checks can follow that shift on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Code Reviews in the Age of AI](https://daily.dev/posts/code-reviews-in-the-age-of-ai-acvy63drb) · Earthly · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Why AI-driven development still demands human oversight](https://daily.dev/posts/why-ai-driven-development-still-demands-human-oversight-tvvjeefam) · SD Times · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#cicd](https://daily.dev/tags/cicd), [#ai-coding](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-coding), [#code-review](https://daily.dev/tags/code-review) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/how-ai-is-changing-code-reviews-software-development-rzz31cwst) ```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":"How AI Is Changing Code Reviews & Software Development","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-ai-is-changing-code-reviews-software-development-rzz31cwst","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-ai-is-changing-code-reviews-software-development-rzz31cwst"},"datePublished":"2026-08-31T11:14:28.291Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T08:22:54.929Z","description":"A historical narrative traces code review practices from Fagan inspections through pair programming, pull requests, CI/CD automation, and now AI-assisted...","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/c57vAe-mMLo/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/c57vAe-mMLo/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"IBM Technology","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":"IBM Technology","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--OXHaOiWX--/f_auto/v1715498011/logos/ibmtechnology","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/ibmtechnology"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-ai-is-changing-code-reviews-software-development-rzz31cwst","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"cicd,ai-coding,code-review","timeRequired":"PT14M","video":{"@type":"VideoObject","name":"How AI Is Changing Code Reviews & Software Development","description":"A historical narrative traces code review practices from Fagan inspections through pair programming, pull requests, CI/CD automation, and now AI-assisted...","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/c57vAe-mMLo/sddefault.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-08-31T11:14:28.291Z","duration":"PT14M","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/rZZ31CwsT","embedUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/embed/c57vAe-mMLo"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"IBM Technology","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/ibmtechnology"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"How AI Is Changing Code Reviews & Software Development"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-ai-is-changing-code-reviews-software-development-rzz31cwst#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"what is the Fagan inspection in software code review history","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"The Fagan inspection is a formal, structured code and document review method created by IBM engineer Michael Fagan. 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