Why I’m Excited for AI as a Sitecore Developer
Artificial intelligence (AI) was one of the big buzzwords of this year’s Sitecore Symposium for obvious reasons. AI is cutting-edge technology, so companies that can leverage it strategically and ethically will operate leagues ahead of their competitors. AI can offer your organization many benefits, but I thought, “Why not look straight to the source?” So I asked ChatGPT to list some of the business advantages AI provides.
- Efficiency and Productivity: AI can automate repetitive tasks, freeing up employees to focus on higher-value work. This can lead to increased productivity and reduced operational costs.
- Data Analysis: AI excels at analyzing large volumes of data quickly and accurately, uncovering insights that might be missed by human analysis. This can help companies make better-informed decisions.
- Customer Experience: AI-powered chatbots and personalized recommendations enhance customer interactions, improving satisfaction and engagement.
- Predictive Analytics: AI can forecast trends and customer behaviors, helping businesses anticipate market changes and adjust strategies accordingly.
- Cost Savings: By automating processes and improving efficiencies, AI can lead to significant cost reductions in various operational areas.
- Innovation: AI can drive innovation by enabling new products and services, allowing companies to stay competitive in rapidly evolving markets.
- Scalability: AI systems can scale with a business, handling increasing amounts of data and tasks without a proportional increase in resources.
The above list was all written by ChatGPT. It’s amazing, and kind of scary.
I’m not the only developer who has felt apprehensive about AI. With many demos of new AI tools, especially ones that take an uploaded Figma or Canva design and automatically generate NextJS code, it feels like developers are trying to be replaced. That was my initial feeling, but after Sitecore Symposium, I’m actually very excited about how I can use these tools to save time, avoid tedious work, and get to the fun stuff faster.
How, exactly, do I see AI helping with my work? First, I need a lot of basic similar code whenever I create a new component. Building out the HTML skeleton, the basic responsive styles, and Googling for the hundredth time how to use Flexbox — these things are simple and a bit tedious. Once the groundwork is laid out, then I can dig into the more interesting work — implementing logic to transform the data or dynamically change the output. Having AI do the grunt work for me gives me a great place to get a running start.
Other things that can be done with AI include writing GraphQL queries (something I do not enjoy doing); converting .Net C# code to NextJS JavaScript (or other programming languages — I once used it to convert C# to VB.Net); and giving accessibility reports and recommendations on how to remediate issues.
Using AI in this way doesn’t just benefit me — it also benefits my clients. If I can save an hour or two every time I create a new component, that means lower estimates for my clients. So clients can save money on projects or get more work done within the same budget. With the AI tools available for development, developers and agencies that utilize AI strategically will inevitably edge out those that don’t, since they can give lower bids on projects while delivering the same quality output. Although, it’s still crucial to be a good developer — trying to use AI to replace actual development skills rather than supplement them is a recipe for failure. AI currently only gives you a running start; you still need to understand the code AI generates and know how to complete or fix it. Even when AI can get you 100% of the way there, a developer needs to know if the code is correct and fix it if it’s not.
AI’s Impact on Developers in the Future
Ultimately, AI will not take developers’ jobs. A person who knows how to use AI will take our jobs. Innovation that streamlines work is nothing new. When Microsoft Excel was new, people feared it would take their jobs, because it provided automation to calculations that accountants previously had to do by hand and made tasks that once took a whole day suddenly only take minutes. And yes, some people lost their jobs due to this; but there are still a ton of accountants around today, and most of them are experts in Excel. Like with Excel, the developers who will thrive are those who don’t see AI as a rival, but as a tool to make their job easier and allow them to do more. So, will you let yourself be replaced by AI, or will you make AI work for you?
Curious about more ways you can use AI to gain efficiencies and reduce costs with your Sitecore development? Contact us. Our Sitecore MVPs can show you how AI helps you make a bigger impact on your organization.