The Resistors - Falling Behind
These companies avoid AI adoption. The reasons vary: ethical concerns, security, compliance, quality assurance. All valid, but caution turns into inertia fast. They don’t keep up with productivity gains. New talent expects modern tooling. Technical debt accumulates. While others ship faster with less effort, resistors lose ground. Not because they’re bad at development, but because the game has changed.
The Reckless - Descending into Chaos
At the other extreme are companies that dive into AI without a plan. Each team adopts different tools. There’s no alignment, no architecture, no shared principles. “Just throw some GPT in the development workflows” might sound agile, but it rarely ends well. The result is fragmentation. Codebases drift. Ownership becomes unclear. Quality drops. Incidents increase. Developer experience suffers. Eventually, trust in AI erodes, and leadership bans it. Swinging from chaos back to stagnation.
The Controlled Adopters - Building Advantage
The third group treats AI like any strategic capability: deliberately, incrementally, with intent. They define use cases, guardrails, and feedback loops. AI tools are integrated into workflows rather than tacked on. The results are clear: productivity rises, quality stays intact, and teams stay engaged. Developers focus on higher-order work, feedback loops accelerate, and capability compounds. Instead of resisting the wave, they ride it. Everyone Will Use AI. The Difference Is How.
Every company will use AI in development. The real question is: will you resist, rush, or lead? Controlled adoption is not optional. It’s the only path to sustainable success. It’s not AI that changes the game. It’s how you adopt it.
