{"slug": "i-m-a-microsoft-software-engineer-ai-makes-hitting-my-deadlines-much-easier-but", "title": "I'm a Microsoft software engineer. AI makes hitting my deadlines much easier, but I'm still skeptical it will replace me.", "summary": "Rahul Devikar, a 34-year-old senior software engineer at Microsoft, says AI tools like Copilot and Claude have dramatically sped up development, reducing some month-long projects to three or four days, but he remains skeptical AI will replace him. Devikar, who worked on the Microsoft 365 Agents SDK, notes the biggest time savings come from making post-build changes, not initial coding, and warns that the main challenge is recognizing when AI hallucinates. He advises treating AI as an assistant and cautions against over-reliance that could lead to 'AI slop.'", "body_md": "*This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Rahul Devikar, a 34-year-old senior software engineer at Microsoft who lives in the Seattle area. It has been edited for length and clarity.*\n\nI've worked as a software engineer at Microsoft since 2018. Over the years, I've had a front-row seat to how AI has transformed the way software gets built.\n\nOne of the biggest projects I've worked on is Microsoft 365 Agents SDK, an open-source library for building AI agents. It was my first open-source project at Microsoft, and we took it from idea to public preview in just a few months.\n\nWhile projects like this require a lot of work, I haven't experienced much of the [AI fatigue](https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-fatigue-burnout-software-engineer-essay-siddhant-khare-2026-2) that I've heard other engineers talk about. That's because overall, I think AI has made it much easier to get projects done.\n\nThat said, AI comes with its own challenges. Sometimes an [AI agent hallucinates](https://www.businessinsider.com/why-ai-chatbots-hallucinate-openai-chatgpt-anthropic-claude-2025-9), and figuring out why can be frustrating. As long as you're checking what it produces along the way, though, I think AI helps more than it hurts.\n\n**The biggest AI time savings isn't writing the initial code**\n\nIn my experience, it used to be much more common to work long hours just to hit a deadline. There was often a concern about whether we'd finish a project on time. Now, we can usually build the first version much more quickly and spend more time refining and improving it instead.\n\nSome projects that used to take about a month can now be finished in three or four days — or at most a week. Using a combination of internal [tools like Copilot](https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-coding-tools-popular-github-gemini-code-assist-cursor-q-2025-7) and external ones like Claude, we have a lot more opportunities to build proofs-of-concept, and AI has dramatically sped up development.\n\nFor bigger product releases, though, the biggest time savings haven't come from writing the initial code. They've come from making changes after the first version is built.\n\nWhen you design something, show it to other people, and realize certain things need to be improved, you have to go back and make those changes. Back in 2020, for example, that process might have taken another month or two. Today, it's often a matter of days or weeks.\n\n**The biggest challenge is knowing when AI is wrong**\n\nDespite the benefits of AI tools, they aren't perfect and can make mistakes.\n\nI've seen [AI agents hallucinate](https://www.businessinsider.com/workday-study-looks-at-time-spent-fixing-ai-errors-2026-1) when asked to complete engineering tasks. The biggest challenge isn't that they hallucinate — it's recognizing when they've hallucinated. If you don't already understand the task yourself or know what to expect, it can be difficult to spot when the AI has made a mistake. I've found that the better you are at catching those mistakes, the more successful you'll be using AI.\n\nOverall, I think AI should be thought of as an assistant, not a replacement. As a user, you have context that the AI doesn't always have. One of my biggest concerns is that people will become too reliant on AI without developing the underlying knowledge themselves. I think that could lead to more \"[AI slop](https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-slop-kids-tiktok-2026-6).\"\n\n**Now is the time to start experimenting with AI**\n\nI think there's a comparison to be made between AI and the internet. When the internet first took off, there was a lot of hype around it. Today, it's such a normal part of our lives that we can't imagine living without it.\n\nI think AI is on a similar path. There's a lot of excitement around it right now, but eventually it will just become part of everyday life. People won't think about using AI any more than they think about using the internet today.\n\nThat's why I think it's a good idea for people to experiment with AI tools and try [vibe coding](https://www.businessinsider.com/beginners-guide-ai-vibe-coding-lovable-base44-claude-2026-6). If you have an idea, try building it. I think many people would be surprised by how much they can accomplish.\n\nWhen it comes to [working with AI tools](https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-tools-doubled-income-save-me-fifteen-hours-each-week-2025-9), I think it's helpful to remember that you're working with an AI, not a human. The tool might not understand what you're trying to say, even if another person would.\n\nYou usually need to be much more descriptive about what you want. I've found it's more effective to break a task into smaller steps instead of asking the AI to do everything at once. That approach tends to make the whole process much more efficient.\n\n## Read more about people who've found themselves at a corporate crossroads\n\n**I'm skeptical that AI will replace software engineers**\n\nPersonally, I experiment with AI tools like Agents365, Claude, and GitHub Copilot to get more hands-on experience with the technology. During tax season, for example, I built an agent to help me understand my taxes.\n\nDespite the benefits of using AI I've seen over my years at Microsoft, I'm skeptical that it will lead to fewer software engineering jobs. While there have been [tech layoffs](https://www.businessinsider.com/why-tech-companies-keep-doing-layoffs-ai-2026-7) in recent years, this isn't the first time the industry has gone through layoffs.\n\nI'm sure AI has played a role in some layoffs, but I also think engineers who keep learning new technologies will be in a much better position going forward. [Software engineering](https://www.businessinsider.com/software-engineering-job-technical-interviews-hiring-ai-2026-7) has always required constant learning, and I don't think that's going to change. I think it's going to create more opportunities to build new products, and at the end of the day, engineers will still be needed to design and develop them.\n\nAI can recommend different approaches or generate code, but it's still up to engineers to decide what technologies to use and how to build the product.\n\n*Do you have a story to share about learning AI or working in tech? Reach out to the reporter via email at *__jzinkula@businessinsider.com__*, or via Signal at jzinkula.29.*", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/i-m-a-microsoft-software-engineer-ai-makes-hitting-my-deadlines-much-easier-but", "canonical_source": "https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-software-engineer-ai-hallucinates-deadlines-job-less-stressful-tech-2026-7", "published_at": "2026-07-22 09:19:01+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-22 09:23:41.528825+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-tools", "ai-agents", "ai-products", "developer-tools"], "entities": ["Rahul Devikar", "Microsoft", "Microsoft 365 Agents SDK", "Copilot", "Claude"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/i-m-a-microsoft-software-engineer-ai-makes-hitting-my-deadlines-much-easier-but", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/i-m-a-microsoft-software-engineer-ai-makes-hitting-my-deadlines-much-easier-but.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/i-m-a-microsoft-software-engineer-ai-makes-hitting-my-deadlines-much-easier-but.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/i-m-a-microsoft-software-engineer-ai-makes-hitting-my-deadlines-much-easier-but.jsonld"}}