Leveraging Microsoft Co-Pilot in Java Programming: Insights from Edgar Kryshen
In 2024, artificial intelligence is making waves across different business domains. Programming is one field significantly benefiting from AI technologies.
Meet Edgar, our Java engineer, actively incorporating Microsoft Co-Pilot into his daily tasks. Today, he'll share his experiences with this AI assistant.
Q: Edgar, how long have you been using Microsoft Co-pilot?
A: 3-4 months
Q: Roughly how much time do you save with the help of this AI assistant?
A: Approximately 20%
Q: What specific tasks do you assign to the Co-pilot?
A: In most cases, I ask it to generate
CI/CD scripts
Java code related to rarely used tools
Theoretical questions (those not easily found through regular search or very specific or representing new technology for me)
Q: What do you suggest considering when creating prompts?
A: I'll state a simple truth: it's crucial to express questions clearly and include as many details as possible.
Q: On which project are you currently using Microsoft Co-pilot?
A: I use it in an EdTech project for backend, CI/CD, and DevOps activities.
Q: How often does Microsoft Co-pilot make mistakes or provide partially correct results? Can it correct errors by itself, or do you need to point them out explicitly?
A: Recently, responses seem less accurate, but the tool can correct itself. I prefer to explicitly point out mistakes to ensure it understands my query. Occasionally, questions like "Are you sure?" can lead to unrelated answers.
Q: What tasks does Microsoft Co-pilot do best?
A: Those that have been solved many times:)
I really liked its assistance in generating CI/CD pipelines (both in code and theoretical help), in which I had little experience. I am very satisfied with the result of how the task was implemented.
Q: In your opinion, is Microsoft Co-Pilot equally beneficial for Junior and Senior experts, or does it cater more to a specific level of expertise?
A: Experts at all levels will find it useful; they will simply use Co-Pilot differently to address various tasks based on their competence levels.
Junior experts need to be more cautious because they may lack the knowledge to determine if the answer is correct.
For the specialists of higher levels, the benefits are obvious. You can't keep all knowledge in your head. Additionally, quickly recalling theory and generating code for further refinement accelerates work significantly.
Q: Do your colleagues use Microsoft Co-pilot?
A: Yes, on my project, it is actively used by developers, designers, and product owners on the client's side.
Q: In your opinion, can AI assistants replace human developers?
A: No:) Not in the near future.
Q: Share your overall impression of using Microsoft Co-pilot and give advice to those who are not yet familiar with this technology.
A: The tool is great, but it doesn't solve everything.
I like that it does additional googling before generating an answer and provides links for reference. It's handy for quickly verifying the accuracy of the generated response.
If you haven't tried the AI tool yet, I encourage you to give it a go to enhance your productivity and save time on routine tasks.
