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AI-assisted coding: tools, tips, and best practices

AI-assisted coding: tools, tips, and best practices

Love it or hate it, we’ve entered the era of vibe coding. Instead of asking engineers to turn ideas into code, engineers can instead ask AI to do it for them. A true breakthrough? It looks like it, with OpenAI, Anthropic, and other tech leaders innovating their own AI-assisted coding solutions.

Intuit technologists estimate efficiency gains as high as 40%

Vibe coding. AI-assisted coding. Whatever you call it, one thing is clear: it’s an evolution in software engineering with real traction and major upside. Our work here is to help technology leaders understand what solutions are out there and what they can do.

How software engineers use AI-assisted coding today

The findings in the latest Anthropic Economic Index are based on the analysis of 500,000 Claude interactions. Three patterns stand out: 

Anthropic researchers found that the top use cases for AI-assisted coding were Software Architecture & Code Design and UI/UX Component Development. After that, Debug & Performance Optimization, Web & Mobile App Development, and Technical Documentation Creation rounded out the top five.

The versatility of AI-assisted coding stems from its ability to handle both high-level conceptual work and granular implementation details. This makes it valuable across the development lifecycle, both in terms of productivity and overall efficiency.

Additional use cases include:

The top AI-assisted coding tools to use

The Anthropic study focuses on Anthropic’s own AI tools. No surprise there. But Claude is far from the only viable tool out there.

Choosing the right tool will depend on your team’s specific needs, expertise, and development environment. The best tool for rapid prototyping, for example, may not be the best tool for multi-file edits; the same goes for debugging, or complex projects with significant business logic.

IDE-integrated solutions

Visual Studio Code + GitHub Copilot
Company: GitHub (Microsoft)
Launch: Jun. 2022 (GA); Enterprise version launched Nov. 2023
Pricing:
  • $10/month Individual;
  • $19/month Business.
Key features:
  • Code completion;
  • Chat;
  • Multi-model support (GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Gemini).
Agentic maturity: Capable of varying degrees of autonomy, depending on feature set/mode in use (e.g., co-pilot, agent mode, coding agent). Human-in-the-loop design and multi-modal capabilities.
Cursor
Company: Anysphere Inc.
Launch: 2023
Pricing:
  • Free (Hobby);
  • $20/month (Pro);
  • $200/month (Ultra).
Key features:
  • VSCode fork;
  • AI code completion;
  • Chat;
  • Composer for multi-file edits;
  • SOC 2 certified for security.
Agentic maturity: Semi-autonomous with multi-file editing capabilities but still needs human direction for complex tasks.
Cline
Company: Cline Bot Inc.
Launch: June 2024
Pricing: Free VS Code extension with no subscription fees; pay-per-use via API tokens from your chosen provider; new users start with free credits through Cline account
Key features:
  • Autonomous coding agents with human-in-the-loop approval;
  • Model Context Protocol (MCP) integration;
  • Dual Plan/Act modes with workspace snapshots.
Agentic maturity: Sophisticated autonomous capabilities operating within a human-supervised framework.
Windsurf
Company: Codeium/Exafunction
Launch: Nov. 2024
Pricing:
  • Free tier with limited features;
  • Pro ($10/month);
  • Teams/Enterprise (Custom pricing).
Key features:
  • "First agentic IDE";
  • Cascade flow for multi-file editing;
  • Deep codebase understanding;
  • Cross-IDE support (VS Code, JetBrains, etc.);
  • Terminal integration.
Agentic maturity: "First agentic IDE" with Cascade flow enabling autonomous multi-file editing and terminal command execution.
JetBrains AI Assistant
Launch: Dec. 2023 (GA)
Pricing:
  • Free;
  • Pro ($10/month);
  • Ultimate (Quota tier);
  • Enterprise (Custom pricing).
Key features:
  • Deep IDE integration;
  • Multi-model support;
  • Context-aware AI chat;
  • Smart code completion;
  • Multi-file editing;
  • Refactoring suggestions.
Agentic maturity: IDE-integrated suggestions with limited autonomous capabilities beyond context-aware recommendations.
CodeBuddy
Company: CodeBuddy
Launch: 2021
Pricing:
  • $100/month (Essentials);
  • $1000/month (Growth);
  • $2500/month (Bootcamp).
Key features:
  • RIDE all-in-one product studio;
  • Non-engineer friendly.
Agentic maturity: Can autonomously handle full-stack tasks: describe the project, and it builds, tests, and deploys it, all while integrating with the development lifecycle.
Amazon CodeWhisperer
Company: Amazon Web Services
Launch: June 2022 (Preview), April 2023 (GA)
Pricing:
  • Free individual tier;
  • $19/month Professional.
Key features:
  • AI code suggestions;
  • Security scanning;
  • Customization;
  • Integration with AWS services (Lambda, Cloud9, etc.);
  • Part of Amazon Q Developer ecosystem.
Agentic maturity: Primarily reactive code suggestions with minimal autonomous planning abilities.
Tabnine
Company: Tabnine (formerly Codota)
Launch: 2018 (First AI code assistant)
Pricing:
  • Free tier;
  • $12/month Pro;
  • Custom Enterprise pricing.
Key features:
  • Privacy-focused;
  • On-premise deployment;
  • Personalization;
  • Code review agent;
  • Code provenance feature.
Agentic maturity: Context-aware autocomplete with new Code Review Agent showing early autonomous capabilities.
Aider
Developer: Paul Gauthier
Launch: Early 2023
Pricing: Free and open source
Key features:
  • Terminal-based AI pair programming tool;
  • Repository mapping;
  • Automatic Git commits;
  • Multi-file editing;
  • Voice coding;
  • IDE integration;
  • Web scraping.
Agentic maturity: Human-in-the-loop pair programmer with good autonomous file management but requires ongoing human interaction.

Standalone AI coding models

OpenAI Codex
Company: OpenAI
Launch: May 16, 2025 (research preview)
Pricing:
  • Included with ChatGPT Pro ($200/month), Enterprise, and Team;
  • API pricing for codex-mini $1.50 per 1M input tokens, $6 per 1M output tokens with 75% prompt caching discount;
  • Free usage during initial preview period, then rate limits with on-demand purchase options.
Key features:
  • Operates independently in secure cloud sandboxes, capable of writing features, fixing bugs, running tests, and creating GitHub pull requests;
  • Can execute code, run tests, and iteratively refine output until completion;
  • Enables developers to spin up multiple coding tasks simultaneously through natural language prompts.
Agentic maturity: Can operate autonomously and execute complete coding workflows, but still requires human orchestration and oversight.
Claude Code
Company: Anthropic
Launch: October 2024 (research preview launched alongside Claude 3.7 Sonnet); January 2025 (general availability)
Pricing: Included with Claude Pro ($20/month) and Max ($100-200/month)
Key features:
  • Terminal-native agentic coding enabling deep codebase understanding and multi-file edits;
  • Autonomous task execution (codebase search, file edits, testing, committing and pushing code, using command line tools);
  • Connects with GitHub, GitLab, VS Code, JetBrains, and command line tools;
  • Supports MCP servers.
Agentic maturity: Sophisticated autonomous capabilities (reflection, planning, tool use, memory); can operate with minimal human oversight.
Lovable.dev
Company: Lovable (formerly GPT Engineer)
Launch: June 2023 (GPT Engineer CLI launched as open source); 2025 ($15M Series A funding)
Pricing:
  • Free;
  • Starter ($20/month);
  • Plus ($49/month);
  • Pro ($299/month).
Key features:
  • Natural language to app;
  • visual editor;
  • full-stack generation;
  • GitHub integration;
  • Supabase integration;
  • one-click deployment;
  • multi-model AI;
  • real-time preview.
Agentic maturity: Autonomous app generation from prompts but limited in handling complex logic or debugging independently.
Jules by Google
Company: Google
Launch: 2024
Pricing:
  • Part of Google Cloud offerings;
  • Enterprise pricing.
Key features:
  • AI coding assistant;
  • Integration with Google Cloud;
  • Code generation and debugging;
  • Multi-language support.
Agentic maturity: Enterprise-focused with autonomous code suggestions but limited public information on agentic capabilities.
MetaGPT
Company: Open-source project
Launch: 2023
Pricing: Free (open source)
Key features:
  • Multi-agent framework;
  • Simulates software company roles;
  • Generates complete projects;
  • Architecture design to implementation.
Agentic maturity: Multi-agent framework simulating entire development teams with high autonomy across multiple roles.
v0 by Vercel
Company: Vercel, Inc.
Launch: October 2023 (v0 beta)
Pricing:
  • Premium ($20/month);
  • Team ($30/month).
Key features:
  • AI model optimized for web development;
  • No coding experience required;
  • Build everything from simple components to full-stack web apps;
  • Upload media (images, mockups, etc) and convert them to working apps.
Agentic maturity: Single-agent system focused on human-orchestrated workflows.
Devstral
Company: Mistral AI
Launch: May 2025 (research preview)
Pricing: N/A
Key features:
  • Specifically trained to solve actual GitHub issues;
  • Large codebase understanding;
  • Can identify subtle bugs in intricate functions;
  • Agent scaffold compatibility;
  • Lightweight deployment;
  • Local/on-device operation;
  • Enterprise-ready privacy;
  • Interactive codebase integration.
Agentic maturity: Autonomous GitHub issue resolver with strong real-world problem-solving capabilities in existing codebases.
GoCodeo
Company: Qodo (formerly CodiumAI)
Launch: 2023
Pricing: Free tier available along with Pro plans for teams/enterprise
Key features:
  • AI test generation;
  • Code review assistance;
  • IDE integration;
  • Focus on code quality and testing.
Agentic maturity: Focused on autonomous test generation with limited scope for broader development tasks.

Best practices for the future of AI-assisted coding

All of these tools require human oversight, especially when they’re touching core business logic. The inherent risks of AI-assisted coding are backed by recent, real-world examples of AI and agentic coding gone wrong.

In some cases, AI programming copilots are worsening code security and inadvertently leaking secrets. On the supply-chain front, AI hallucinations are giving way to “Slopsquatting”. The fact remains that AI-assisted code: 

Still, for many software teams, the question isn’t will they deploy AI-assisted coding, but when and how.

Having worked with a number of teams using these tools, we find it best to create clear organizational AI policies. These might include:

Many teams also find that they can further reduce risk by committing AI-generated code in small, reviewable chunks. 

Every day, established players and new innovators keep the AI-assisted coding trend in full swing. AI-assisted software development tools are here to stay. If you’re preparing your organization for an AI-powered future, Transcenda can help. Our team is actively exploring new use cases for AI-assisted coding. 

Connect with us to learn more.  

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