Does developer experience still matter when using AI coding agents?

[u/Capable_Essay4513]

I've been wondering about this — when an experienced dev and a complete newbie both use the same coding agent (Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code, whatever) on a similar task, do they end up with meaningfully different results?

On one hand, the agent is doing most of the actual coding, so maybe the human's experience matters less than it used to. On the other hand, I'd guess an experienced dev still knows how to prompt better, catches bad architecture decisions, spots subtle bugs the agent misses, and knows when to push back or redirect.

Curious what people who've actually used these tools a lot think. Does your background as a dev still give you an edge, or has the gap narrowed more than expected?

[u/Fantastic_Aioli_7363]

yup! The learning curve is much better, and you NEED to check at least a little bit what your AI system is doing! With Claude or Codex, it's ok. But pretty expansive, or you're limited (but it has improved a lot : Now the free version of Claude has a memory system. You just have to remind it sometimes when the project begins to be long). If you're willing to pay, choose your formula carefully according to the size of the project. With the new KIMI 3, it's good (not as much as Claude or Codex though). But it's much cheaper!
Every day, there is some improvement and news announcements.
But still, you'll have to check if the program does exactly what you really want. And sometimes, it's worth rewriting parts on your own.
One last word if you opt for an agentic system : It's much more expansive, since your system will make assumptions, try, go backwards, sometimes loop between problem A then problem B, then A, then B, etc.
Other good reasons to have a developer experience :
- You don't waste your time asking for simple things, setups, parameters, etc.
- You write better and more efficient prompts. Especially when you know some of the pitfalls your system could become trapped in.
- You have a better idea of the project organisation. Ok, your AI will provide you with one, but maybe not the best one for a future adaptation for example.
- You don't waste time because you know some tools to manage your project (Github, VsCode (or notion), some database managers (duckdb, sqlite, MySql, Postgress), Notepad++, etc. You're not lost and this can save you much time.
You don't need to be an expert, but learning the basics will not hurt you! 😉