How I use LLMs as a staff engineer in 2026

2026-05-18

Agents have gotten really good in the last fifteen months. They can now be used for real work with light supervision. AI can now be used for writing code changes, investigating and fixing bugs, research in large code bases, manual testing, and more. It still isn't suitable for writing public communications, unreviewed code, or testing UIs, but its capabilities are improving quickly.