Our Thoughts - AI and App Development: Friend, Not Foe

DueTrade

November 19, 2025

I’ve been asked this a few times recently - Is AI going to replace app developers?

Short answer: not yet.

Long answer: It depends on how you define “replace.”

Let’s be honest, the pace of change has been wild. You can now ask AI to build a rough front end, generate snippets of code, write documentation, generate test scripts, and even point out bugs. What used to take days can sometimes be done in minutes. That’s a big shift. But it’s not the full story.

AI vs Human Coders: What’s the Actual Difference?

Here’s the thing: AI is incredible at pattern recognition. It can scaffold a UI. It can refactor chunks of logic. It can translate plain English into working code. What it can’t do very well (yet) is understand nuance, business rules, trade-offs, or user context. That’s where humans come in.

Where developers add real value:

• Understanding edge cases
• Making architecture decisions
• Judging what’s actually good UX
• Navigating conflicting priorities between users and business needs

AI’s strength lies in speed, iteration, and pattern-based outputs. Human developers are still essential for logic, judgement, and delivery.

Cost and Time: AI Is Helping, No Question

Let’s say you’ve got a team building a mid-complexity B2B platform. Traditionally, that might take:

• 6–12 weeks for an MVP
• £25k–£50k in dev time
• Loads of Slack messages, Figma files, and tired eyes

Now? With the right AI tools in place (like GitHub Copilot, Replit, or even GPT-based planning tools), you can:

• Reduce build time by 30–50%
• Cut early-stage costs by £10k+
• Launch a prototype in weeks, not months

But, and it’s a big but, you still need someone reviewing that code. AI makes mistakes. It doesn’t always handle complex async logic well. And you’ll always miss something until it’s in the hands of real users.

Testing Is Still Human (and Messy)

In theory, you can automate a lot of testing with AI. It can write test cases, simulate user flows, and catch syntax issues. But it doesn’t know what it doesn’t know. A dev might forget a rule. A tester might miss a bug. AI will miss both unless someone flags it.

The truth is: you only really know what works when real users start using it. That’s why no matter how clever the build process is, feedback loops matter more than ever. AI doesn’t get frustrated when something breaks, but your customers will.

What’s the Future Look Like?

The trend is clear:

• 78% of developers already use AI tools in some form (GitHub, 2023)
• 42% of companies expect to reduce development time by at least 25% thanks to AI (McKinsey, 2024)
• But only 8% trust AI to handle the entire dev cycle on its own (Stack Overflow, 2024)

So no—it’s not taking over. But it is accelerating the people who know how to use it properly.

Final Thought

AI in app development isn’t a threat. It’s a tool. And like any tool, it’s only useful in the hands of people who know what they’re doing.

As a founder, I want our team to move faster, not cut corners. AI helps with that. It lets us ship faster, test smarter, and spend more time building something that actually works for our customers.

Because at the end of the day, it’s not about code, it’s about people using your product.

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