When AI tools started releasing, I didn’t adopt them right away. I was still doing everything manually — writing code, planning features, researching solutions, fixing bugs. The usual way.

At some point I realized I needed to speed up. So I started using AI tools as much as possible. That’s when I noticed something: switching to AI isn’t just about picking up a new tool. It requires a mindset shift. And that shift takes time and effort.

I call the old way the Manual First Approach — where thinking, planning, and writing code is all done manually by the developer. The new way I call the AI First Approach — where you bring in AI for all of that.

For me, the areas where I started using AI were:

• New feature development — planning what to build and how
• Bug fixing — using AI to investigate and narrow down issues faster
• Technical discovery — for a new project, this means exploring requirements, finding possible solutions, identifying best practices, spotting blockers, and thinking about long-term maintainability of what we’re building

These were all things I was doing manually before. Now I use AI tools for all of them. At work I use Cursor, and for personal projects I use Claude Code and GitHub Copilot in VSCode.

The way I made the shift was simple: just keep using AI for every new piece of work. The more I used it, the more natural it felt. The mindset gradually changed.

Also, I have not focused much on how to write prompts. I just use natural language to describe what I need and so far it works for me.

What I noticed after making this shift — I spend more time on thinking, planning, and testing now. I don’t have to worry about writing every line of code manually. That part is faster. So I can focus on the parts that actually need more of my attention.

I’m still improving how I use these tools. But the direction feels right.

tldr; Switching from Manual First to AI First is a mindset shift, not just a tooling change. The only way I found to make it work is to keep using AI tools continuously for real work.