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Engineering Leads: Equip Your Team with These 6 AI Tools in 2024
I’ve seen an enormous divergence in how teams are approaching AI. I’ve spoken to hundreds of engineering leaders about AI adoption. They almost invariably fall into one of three camps:
Camp 1: “We’re avoiding AI”. It’s an operational risk / a security risk, so until it’s better understood, we’ve got policies to avoid it.
Camp 2: “We’re allowing our people to use AI”. There’s no policy around adoption, but our engineers are using GitHub Copilot, and we let them try things out in ChatGPT.
Camp 3: “We’re actively adopting AI”. They’ve got a person (or a taskforce) responsible for working out how to adopt AI, and they’re open-minded about the potential gains.
What people in Camp 1 and Camp 2 don’t realise is that the people in Camp 3 are making enormous gains.
We asked 200+ companies to tell us about their AI adoption. Those adopting AI said they’d already worked out how to use AI to ship 2.5x faster. Let that sink in!
That means teams who are adopting AI actively are reclaiming 3 hours out of every 8-hour day.
And those same teams expect to be saving 5 hours out of every 8-hour day in a year.
If that isn’t a competitive advantage, I don’t know what is.
As an engineering lead, you’re in the hot seat to usher in this new era of AI-enhanced software development.
So here’s a list of six best-in-class AI tools your team should absolutely be leveraging before this year caps off.
1. Stepsize AI
As engineering leaders, processes and tools for alignment are second nature. We’ve had to adopt them to make alignment feel possible.
But, at best, we (and our engineers) lose 30% of our time trying to get aligned. One of the most basic things we do is report on our progress, whether that be our sprint progress, Kanban, or any other agile methodology.
But really, our progress reports rarely get to the heart of what really matters.
Stepsize AI’s Operational Intelligence Engine observes and reflects on everything that happens in your issue tracker.
It works with Jira and Linear, with more coming soon.
Then, it creates powerful, reliable sprint reports based on its contextual knowledge of your projects and activity, packed only with the data and insights that matter.
The result is super accurate, automatic weekly sprint reports with the perfect amount of context and detail.
It’s all about staying in the loop without drowning in the data.
Stepsize AI enables teams to:
- Achieve alignment, effortlessly: Navigate the complex web of information channels to foster alignment between business units, teams, and individuals.
- Spend less time in meetings: Shift focus from information-sharing meetings to impactful work.
- Reduce context switching: Maintain team efficiency by reducing interruptions and promoting uninterrupted workflow.
So, if you’re tired of tedious meetings and spending hours connecting the dots, Stepsize AI is your go-to solution.
Find out more about Stepsize AI.
2. Sourcegraph Cody
Sourcegraph Cody accelerates your code writing with AI.
Imagine a tool that can read, understand, and answer questions about your entire codebase as well as internal documentation. That's Sourcegraph Cody. This tool promises to speed up coding tasks by a factor of 10.
Best features:
- AI-assisted code autocomplete
- Codebase-aware chat and commands
- One-click unit tests
- Spots code smells in real time
My view: Sourcegraph Cody is the next generation tool from GitHub Copilot. It excels in larger projects where speed and understanding of the existing codebase are crucial.
Alternatives: Mutable offers slimmed-down solutions with similar feature groups.
3. Grit
Grit automates the management of your technical debt.
Tired of manual code migrations and dependency upgrades? Grit aims to automate these often tedious tasks by auto-generating pull requests that follow best practices. It even claims to complete migrations 10x faster.
Best features:
- Auto-generates pull requests for code migrations
- Monitors for regressions in your codebase
- Accelerates dependency upgrades
My view: For teams bogged down by the weight of legacy code and tech debt, Grit is a lifeline.
4. What The Diff
What The Diff streamlines your code review process.
This tool will not only suggest changes in your pull requests but also generate summaries for technical and non-technical team members.
Best features:
- Instant code refactoring with quick commands
- Summarises pull requests into digestible overviews
- Reporting and notifications
My view: If your team is churning out pull requests at a high velocity, What The Diff is the assistant referee you never knew you needed.
5. Mintlify Writer
Mintlify Writer automates your code documentation.
Documentation is often the last thing on a developer’s mind (or at least, the last thing they want to be on their mind) but it’s still an imperative part of any project. Mintlify Writer understands your code and generates accurate documentation in an instant.
Best features:
- One-click comprehensive documentation
- Understands a wide range of programming languages
- Context-aware to produce relevant descriptions
My view: Writing docs isn’t really a valuable use of your engineers’ time, and – generally speaking at least – it’s not a popular part of the job. Docs can end up being incomplete and inaccurate because it’s often an afterthought. So Mintlify Writer is a lifesaver, and it's especially useful for large, complex projects where documentation can become overwhelming.
Alternatives: Scribe is a more generalist tool that can be used for auto-generating documentation.
6. Otter AI
Otter AI is your AI-powered meeting assistant.
If you're drowning in meetings, let Otter AI be your lifeline. It can join, record, and summarise your meetings, allowing you to focus on the work that actually matters.
Best features:
- AI chat for meetings
- Automatic AI meeting summarisation
- Automated slide capture
- Live transcript summary
My view: Otter AI is a universal tool, beneficial for teams large and small, technical or otherwise. It’s pretty great for any use case, like catching up on missed meetings, remembering what happened on sales calls without having to rewatch the whole thing – anything like that. It’s a huge time saver.
The Final Word
Alright, so there you have it – six AI tools that are ready to help your team elevate their game before 2023 ends.
Some teams treat AI like a fad. Those aren’t the teams unlocking 350% efficiency gains.
Be in the latter camp and turn AI into a competitive advantage (before your competitors do!)
We’ve built Stepsize AI to enable your teams to stay aligned, so you can cancel hours’ worth of status update meetings and know what’s happening effortlessly.
I’d love to hear about what your use case is at your org.
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