The AI-Assisted Developer

52 Best Practices for Building Production-Ready Software Faster

Recent Stanford research reveals a shocking truth: developers using AI tools feel 20% more productive while actually being 19% slower. Even worse, AI-generated code contains 80% more security vulnerabilities than human-written code.

The problem isn't the AI tools—it's how developers use them.

Transform Your Development Workflow with 52 Battle-Tested Practices

Written by Rachel Kim, a senior software engineer with 12+ years of experience, The AI-Assisted Developer is the definitive guide for professional software engineers who want to leverage GitHub Copilot, Cursor AI, ChatGPT, and Claude without compromising code quality or security standards.

This isn't another "ChatGPT tricks" tutorial. It's a systematic engineering approach that treats AI as a capable junior developer who needs clear direction and thorough review—not magic that works automatically.

What You'll Master:

• Context-First Prompt Engineering: Write prompts that generate production-ready code, not plausible-looking garbage that breaks in production
• Security-First Validation: Catch the subtle authentication logic errors and authorization flaws that AI consistently introduces
• Strategic Task Breakdown: Learn which tasks to delegate to AI and which require human architectural thinking • Comprehensive Testing Workflows: Generate meaningful unit tests, integration tests, and edge cases that actually catch bugs
• Legacy Code Modernization: Use AI to understand, refactor, and migrate complex systems safely
• Team Collaboration Standards: Scale AI practices across your organization with proven frameworks and quality gates

Perfect for:

• Senior engineers who want productivity gains without skill atrophy
• Technical leads implementing AI practices across development teams
• Software architects balancing innovation with code quality
• Any developer building production systems who needs to move faster without breaking things

The Future Belongs to Engineers Who Master AI Assistance

The developers who dominate the next decade won't resist AI or embrace it blindly. They'll combine deep technical knowledge with strategic AI usage—shipping faster without cutting corners, building more without sacrificing standards.

Stop vibing your way into technical debt. Start building better software faster with systematic AI practices that actually work in production.