This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Matt Pass
The uses of AI in web development have really exploded over the last few years and show no sign of slowing down, if anything just seems to be accelerating. That said, there's some pretty far fetched examples online supposedly producing entire apps with a prompt and a single click. One day, that might be the case - but we're still some way off that being a sensible reality right now.
So I thought I'd pay attention during my week to see how and where I use AI and found it's in surprisingly few, but targeted areas.
How and where?
Over the last couple of years I've gravitated towards thinking of AI like a really smart assistant. I get it to do the mundane tasks, explain code to me and to improve what I have... and that works pretty well for me!
Here's how I used it during a typical week:
Copilot - for assisting while coding
This is by far my biggest use of AI. As I code I pause for a second to give Copilot chance to continue what I'm coding. About half the time it guesses perfectly, which is then highly satisfying when you hit the Tab key to apply that in your code. The other half of the time, it's provided something which isn't right, so I'll code a little more and again wait, to give it another 50/50 chance.
I've now learned to spot very quickly if it's right or not and this binary "yes, that's it, accepted" or "no, I'll code more" rinse and repeat cycle has become quite normal to me now.
Copilot - for chat
Sometimes when working on a tricky aspect I know would take me a little time and Copilot likely isn't going to provide what I need in the editor pane, I'll pop open the Copilot chat window. Sure, I could probably explain in a comment to help it assist directly in the editor, but it feels messy to add a comment you know you'll delete, plus the chat pane keeps your past discussions.
Typical uses are when I'd like to refactor some code, or maybe help assist with a regex pattern. A quick explanation, ensuring you choose what it should use for context (from the tabs you have open, and what you've selected) I find it can help produce not just the code you need, but an explanation as to why also.
ChatGPT - for natural language generation
Aside from code, sometimes a little content needs to be written. I do okay with copywriting (in my very humble opinion), but occasionally want to get some extra perspectives, sometimes to shorten content, or maybe to elaborate on an area and ChatGPT still proves to be an excellent resource for this.
Perplexity - to give a deeper understanding
I still use Google for search, as the "usually always on screen" address bar of my browser provides a handy, instant way to search, so for ease of access I think I'll use Google for some time to come. The quality of results can be a little frustrating however and sometimes I'll need to click a number of links before I might get the answers I was seeking, perhaps needing to piece together those answers mentally if overall a few sites were needed for the answer.
So recently I've been using Perplexity more and more. I find it can save time by collating information from many sources and providing a very well written response to my question, which includes links to all the places it sourced information from. It's like all the juggling of info I had to do in my mind is no longer needed, it's all laid out for me.
Some of the greatest uses I've found for Perplexity, are not just to provide answers, but explain why something is the way it is or give comparisons across information. A great example of this, is recently I needed to understand the differences between GitHub Flavored Markdown and CommonMark. Google did't help much - the search results explained each, but not comparitively. Perplexity laid it all out for me to show all those differences in an easy to digest way, plus a shareable URL too: https://www.perplexity.ai/search/what-are-the-differences-betwe-DMZ1oLbDTmKDOgVwh0hXqg - pretty awesome!
Canva - for image creation
Perhaps once a week I need a royalty free image of something specific (like the image used in this article). It can be a hassle to head to the various royalty free image sites, struggle to find what you'd like, then need to pay for it, etc.
I've no preference to any image generating AI solution right now, but Canva is perhaps my preference for now. They do a pretty good job, but could produce better images for my needs. However, I very much suspect that's me not providing specific enough prompts - after all, they're not mind readers, I need to actually explain what I'd like (ie, what the image should include, the style of it and more). A skill I should improve on for sure.
That's it!
It's been interesting to find I use AI all day, every day, but in surprisingly few areas and for specific needs. I've not got caught up with the hype of magic solutions out there, but over time have selectively chosen to use AI how and where I need it. From assisting while coding, to explaining tricky areas, to saving time on mundane tasks. It helps give me new considerations in written content, deeper understanding and comparisons where I want them and saves a bunch of time creating images (that I'm not creative enough to produce anyway).
How and where do you use AI?
So, during an average week, how and where do you use AI? Do you use AI more or less than you were expecting and have you gravitated towards selective uses? Are there any great tools or uses I'm missing out on? It'd be great to know in the comments!
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Matt Pass
Matt Pass | Sciencx (2025-02-09T11:32:56+00:00) How and where I use AI for web dev. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2025/02/09/how-and-where-i-use-ai-for-web-dev/
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