AI Wrote the WordPress Code. I Still Had to Make the Important Decision.
I gave AI a WordPress development requirement. It understood the requirement. It generated the PHP. The code worked. There were no obvious errors. So I had a simple question: Should I use it? My answer was: Not yet. Not because the code was bad. The real problem was that I hadn't decided where the code belonged. Should it go into functions.php? Should I create a custom plugin? Should it be an…
A WordPress developer gave an AI artificial intelligence system a development requirement to generate PHP code. The code worked without noticeable errors. However, before implementing the code, the developer had to decide where the code belonged within the WordPress architecture.
The decision was not easy, as there were multiple options: functions.php, a custom plugin, an MU-plugin, an existing plugin, or theme-specific functionality. The developer realized that the real value of AI-assisted development lies in the architectural decisions made by the developer.
WordPress development is not just about writing PHP code; it also involves questions about ownership, longevity, reusability, and the impact on other projects. The developer must consider these factors and ask questions like: If I remove the theme, should this functionality still exist? If yes, it belongs in a plugin; if no, it belongs in the theme.
The developer's role is changing due to AI. While AI can generate code quickly, the developer needs to focus on higher-level tasks such as architecture, decision-making, trade-offs, review, and maintenance. The value of developers is shifting upward as AI gets better at generating code.
Instead of asking for AI to simply write code, the developer prefers to use AI as a senior WordPress architect who can analyze the requirement, decide where the code should live, explain the architectural reasoning and trade-offs, and generate production-ready code. This approach allows the developer to focus on making better decisions and amplifying their thinking with AI assistance.
In conclusion, AI can write code and even generate plugins, but someone still needs to decide what belongs where in the WordPress architecture. The less expensive code becomes, the more valuable good architecture becomes, making architectural decisions a crucial aspect of software development in the AI era.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.
