Best AI Tools to Increase Developers’ Productivity

Best AI Tools to Increase Developers’ Productivity and Add in Your Stack

There are a lot of AI tools to increase developer productivity that are already widely used in software development. Here is a list of some good and popular options of AI-powered tools to serve different purposes while building a product.

Code Generation Tools and Code Assistants

As you input code in real-time, this AI for developers generates code suggestions or offers auto-completion based on prompts. These invaluable tools have the capability to translate between various programming languages and autonomously generate code for programs.

Here are some AI tools to increase developers productivity

# GitHub Copilot

Developed by GitHub and OpenAI, Copilot acts as a virtual duo programmer that generates comprehensive code and offers key features like code competition, clarification, debugging, and more.

Best GitHub Copilot Features

• GitHub Copilot integrates with popular IDEs such as JetBrains, Neovim, Visual Studio, and Visual Studio Code and offers extensions for them.
• Copilot assists developers in finding and fixing coding errors by automatically detecting common programming mistakes and offering suggestions for resolution.
• Programmers can identify potential security vulnarabilities in code by analyzing code patterns and providing suggestions to mitigate security risks, thereby enhancing code security and reliability.
• It generates comments to improve code comprehension, providing code context and explanations for code snippets and functions, which can help developers understand and maintain code more effectively.

# AskCodi

AskCodi is one of the AI tools for software developers that helps make your coding workflow faster with smart code suggestions. The tool can translate natural language into more than 65 programming languages and allows switching between them. Being built on OpenAI GPT, it’s packed with key features like a unique autocomplete function, auto-test creators, code generators, and time complexity insights.

Best AskCodi Features

• It integrates with popular editors like Visual Studio, JetBrains PyCharm, Sublime Text, and VS Code Autocomplete extension.
• AskCodi offers code analysis for performance, errors, and security issues.
• A real-time chat feature helps to find answers to questions and clarify doubts.
• The tools can generate unit tests and documentation for the code.

# Amazon CodeWhisperer

Empowered by its knowledge of billions of lines of code, CodeWhisperer by Amazon provides instant suggestions, spanning from code snippets to complete functions. Users can tailor these suggestions according to their specific needs, harnessing their internal libraries, APIs, and best practices.

Best Amazon CodeWhisperer Features

• It offers built-in security scans and AI-powered code remediation for identified issues.
• The command line has enhancements like comprehensive code completions, inline documentation, and AI-driven natural language into code translation.
• CodeWhisperer is optimized for use with AWS services.

# Tabnine

Tabnine was created by Codota to offer high-quality code recommendations based on its machine-learning abilities. It provides code suggestions for more than 20 languages and around 15 editors. The tool analyzes the developer’s code patterns and offers personalized suggestions.

Best Tabnine Features

• TabNine can understand and interpret natural language descriptions of code.
• Due to its high speed and performance, the tool offers almost instant code suggestions and auto-completion even for large codebases.
• It adapts to individual coding styles and preferences over time, learning from each developer's interactions to provide personalized and tailored code suggestions.
• An offline mode that allows developers to use the tool without an internet connection.

# Replit GhostWriter

GhostWriter by Replit is one of the AI developer toolkits to generate cleaner code from natural language prompts, suggest code, refactor, and explain complex code. It supports a wide variety of programming languages as well as importing real-time code from Github or another Git repository.

Best GhostWriter Features

• Transforms natural language prompts into code.
• Assists in refactoring or updating code to adhere to standards.
• Analyzes existing code and explains it in a simple English summary.
• Seamless integration with Replit online code editor so users can perform all the code-related actions in one place.
• It offers a high speed with an average response time of 500ms.

Cody by Sourcegraph is an AI-powered code recommendation tool that helps developers discover relevant code examples and resources within their development workflow.

This exceptional AI tool offers a range of features like providing contextually relevant code snippets, documentation, and examples directly within their code editor, enabling faster problem-solving and code exploration.

Best Cody by Sourcegraph Features

• Cody analyzes code contextually and provides intelligent suggestions for code completion, helping developers write code more efficiently.
• It offers contextual documentation for code snippets, allowing developers to understand the usage and implementation details directly within their code editor.
• Developers can explore relevant code examples and resources without leaving their workflow, facilitating faster problem-solving and learning.
• Cody allows users to customize their preferences and settings, tailoring the code suggestions to their specific coding style and preferences.

Of course, these are not all the possible productivity tools to enhance code writing, reviewing, and editing. Some other tools you may check are Codeium, CodePal, Mutable AI, and Code Snippets.

Automated Testing and Debugging

Finding and fixing software bugs has always been a significant time drain for development teams.

Artificial intelligence development tools can automate repetitive and not very complex tasks, this way, giving development teams more time to address more intricate bugs. 

# TestCraft

TestCraft is a codeless test automation platform that leverages AI to automatically maintain and update tests as the application evolves. It offers visual test creation and maintenance, reducing the need for manual scripting.

Best TestCraft Features

• Automated tests without writing any code. 
• TestCraft includes AI-powered capabilities for test maintenance, such as self-healing tests and dynamic element identification.
• Cross-browser and cross-device testing.
• A visual test editor with built-in debugging tools, allowing users to create and debug automated tests visually. 
• Identifies potential accessibility issues and suggests solutions to cater to all users.

# Mabl

Mabl is an intelligent test automation platform that uses AI to create and maintain end-to-end tests for web applications. It automatically detects UI changes and adjusts tests accordingly, reducing maintenance overhead.

Best Mabl Features

• Self-healing capabilities that automatically update tests to accommodate changes in the application's UI or functionality. 
• Mabl supports cross-browser and cross-device testing.
• Analytics dashboards, test summaries, and trend analysis, allowing teams to track test results.
• Integration with popular CI/CD pipelines like Jenkins, Bamboo, and CircleCI.
• It includes visual testing capabilities that allow developers to verify the visual appearance and layout of their applications. 

# Applitools

Applitools offers AI-powered visual testing tools for web and mobile applications. It automatically detects visual bugs and inconsistencies across different browsers, devices, and screen sizes.

Best Applitools Features

• The tool compares screenshots of different versions of the application to identify visual differences, even across different browsers, devices, and screen sizes.
• Self-healing tests and dynamic locators.
• Integration with CI/CD tools like Jenkins, TeamCity, and Bamboo.
• A centralized dashboard for managing and monitoring visual tests.
• Advanced features for accessibility testing.

Automated Documentation Generators

Good documentation is essential for managing and expanding your software, especially in larger projects with a lot of contributors. Here comes AI for developers. It saves time and effort by automatically generating documentation from the codebase.

Such AI developer tools are able to analyze the code, and extract comments, structure, and usage patterns so that software engineers can quickly grasp how to use a piece of code, understand its functionality, and identify any dependencies it may have.

Here are some of the best AI tools for developers to create documentation.

# Scribe

Scribe is one of the AI tools to increase developer productivity that speeds up documentation witing, management, and upkeep of documentation. With the help of Scribe documentation software, you can create guides, tutorials, and standard operating procedures.

Best Scribe Features

• Scribe integrates with hundreds of popular tools such as WordPress, Microsoft Teams, etc.
• Its AI content creation tool can organize your documents by including titles, descriptions, contextual details, and obscuring sensitive data.
• It offers great customization features for text, images, etc.
• Scribe has very user-friendly feedback tools.
• Step-by-step guides enhanced by AI, showcasing annotated screenshots.

# Mintlify

Mintlfiy is a platform designed for developers to create API documentation. It harnesses MDX for content creation, seamlessly integrating it with the codebase. Mintlify has a wide range of pre-built components that enhance the visual appeal of the documentation, eliminating the need for additional formatting.

Best Mintlify Features

• AI-powered content creation tool enables effortless organization of documents, allowing users to include titles, descriptions, contextual details, and even obscure sensitive data with ease.
• Extensive customization options for text, images, and other elements
• GPT-4 powered chat for users to get instant responses.
• Step-by-step guides enriched by AI, complete with annotated screenshots provide users with clear and comprehensive instructions.

Prototyping

Building prototypes is the initial stage of the software development process which allows teams to visualize the product, explore different design concepts, and validate them with users before committing to full-scale development.

AI tools for developers can generate design concepts and prototypes based on given criteria and constraints. These designs can range from basic wireframes to more complex visual mockups, helping designers explore various options quickly. 

Some of the best AI tools for developers to help in the process are

# Adobe XD

Adobe XD allows create quick and simple designs on artboards. You can connect these artboards to build an interactive prototype which can then be shared and refined in collaboration with stakeholders.

Best Adobe XD Features

• Multiple artboards to visualize different screens or states of the design.
• XD's prototyping mode to create interactive prototypes with transitions, gestures, and animations.
• The tool automatically generates animations between artboards based on design changes for fluid transitions.
• XD allows to design of voice interactions and commands for voice-controlled interfaces and experiences.
• Defines different variations of design elements and creates interactions between component states for dynamic prototypes.

# Figma

Figma is a great collaborative interface design tool for prototyping UI/UX designs. With its advanced yet user-friendly features, Figma enables the creation of interactive flows directly within the design file. Just in a few minutes, you can transform your static designs into a lifelike representation of your website or product.

Best Figma Features

• Figma offers a range of prototyping tools, including transitions, overlays, and interactions, that allow you to create interactive prototypes directly within the development environment.
• Interactive components enable you to create dynamic and interactive prototypes by defining component states and transitions between them. This allows you to create prototypes that respond to user interactions more realistically.
• Auto layout automatically adjusts the layout of elements within frames, making it easy to create responsive designs and prototypes that adapt to different screen sizes and orientations.
• Variants allow you to create multiple versions of components within your designs, making it easy to explore different options and variations without duplicating work.

# InVision Studio

InVision Studio is a powerful design and prototyping tool that offers specialized features for creating interactive prototypes, animations, and transitions. It includes collaboration tools for sharing and gathering feedback on designs.

Best InVision Studio Features

• InVision Studio allows designers to create interactive prototypes with clickable elements, transitions, and animations. 
• Designers can animate elements, define easing curves, and add motion effects to enhance the user experience.
• Auto-layout automatically adjusts the layout of design elements based on changes in content or screen size. 
• Designers can create component states, which represent different variations or states of a design element. 

Constraints and Considerations in the Use of Generative AI Tools

While AI tools for software development lifecycle bring numerous advantages, there are still challenges coming with their usage. Here is a piece of advice on careful usage of AI for developers:

1. Don’t over-rely on AI for code generation and debugging without understanding the logic behind it.
2. Advanced AI tools require time and effort to learn.
3. the performance of complex AI systems must be continuously monitored to ensure they function properly.
4. Having impressive capabilities, AI tools to increase developers productivity still lack the ability to fully understand the context and make ethical decisions.

Conclusion

The role of AI in software development workflows is rapidly growing. Today, it’s a great tool for developers to expand developers’ capabilities, not to replace them. Therefore, maintaining a balance between AI software development tools and core programming skills is crucial for maximizing the potential of AI while avoiding over-reliance.

We hope that our list of AI tools to increase developer productivity will come in handy and make your coding process easier, faster, and more enjoyable.

And, what are your favorite AI for developers tools?