CoPilot and ChatGPT for Software Development: Insights from Developers at LegalMatch

In today’s world, AI-driven software development has evolved from a mere futuristic concept to a practical reality. With over 1.2 million software developers worldwide utilizing AI tools to streamline their coding process and enhance efficiency, the potential for time and cost savings is huge. 

At LegalMatch, our developers have enthusiastically embraced AI tools, recognizing the significant advantages they bring. These tools have proven to be valuable assets by simplifying tasks and enhancing productivity for our team. However, it’s worth noting that while AI tools offer undeniable benefits for others, some developers express a degree of caution, acknowledging that they cannot solely rely on AI for all aspects of their work. 

Two of the most frequently used AI tools used by our developers to improve their workflow are CoPilot and ChatGPT.  Now, to gain further insights into our developers’ experiences with these tools, we conducted a mini survey. Here’s what some of them had to share about their encounters with these tools: 

 

CoPilot 

CoPilot is an AI-powered code completion tool developed by GitHub in collaboration with OpenAI. It integrates with popular code editors, such as Visual Studio Code, and provides real-time suggestions and autocompletion for code snippets while developers are writing software. 

 

“It generates a lot of boilerplate code that I would need to write by myself otherwise. Sometimes it can just generate some tricky functions that I simply describe in a comment, then press “Enter” and already get some workable output. That’s especially useful with languages when I’m not really an expert, like Groovy or Terraform.” Nikolai P., Senior Software Developer 

 

“Sometimes we encounter weird bugs that require time to investigate and resolve. And if the investigation doesn’t go well enough, our usual approach would be to try to google similar symptoms or submit a question to Stack Overflow. Now with the AI assistant, we are able to submit the question in natural human language, no matter how silly it sounds, and immediately receive some valuable clues.” Nikolai P., Senior Software Developer 

 

“Initially, I was hesitant about the idea of having an AI companion for coding, but exploring GitHub CoPilot totally changed my perspective. Yes, it looks scary that AI knows more language and code, but it will not work without a dev driving the coding. If you’re the type of developer who writes your algorithm as a TODO for a guide to complete your algorithm, CoPilot will greatly change your game as you just have to convert that TODO into a comment and you’ll have like multiple people interpreting, and coding the comment giving different approaches. This tool will greatly help a developer be more productive. 

 There are still many things to explore about CoPilot, so I’ll continue using the tool and add the other good things later.” – Alelie S., Senior Java Developer

 

Chat GPT 

Chat GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is an AI language model developed by OpenAI which offers developers a powerful way to incorporate natural language understanding and generation capabilities into their software, enhancing the conversational aspects of applications and systems. 

 

“It is still not a silver bullet. It is only useful for entirely new codes that have fewer dependencies on our legacy/existing codes because ChatGPT and other AI researcher tools have no access to our private code repositories. It will take a good developer to identify how to incorporate the generated code into our existing codebase. 

 Basically, we really don’t know if it’s really AI in the background. For normal end users, how can they tell between a machine-learning chatbot and an ordinary chatbot?  AI has a wide scope of definition.” Ron K., Senior Java Developer 

 

“ChatGPT has made my life easier and more effective. They cover things I might miss and enhance my development process. With our knowledge combined with AI, we’re on the right track. Welcome to the future!” – Orjan B., Software Engineer 

 

While AI tools are undoubtedly capable of saving time and enhancing productivity, they are not intended to replace a developer’s expertise or critical thinking. Instead, they should be employed as a valuable assistant to a developer’s skills and judgment. 

 

 

AI in Marketing: 5 Use Cases

Of all the functions within a company, marketing stands to gain the most from the power of artificial intelligence (AI). Marketing involves understanding customer needs, aligning them with the right products and services, and ultimately convincing people to purchase. These critical activities are precisely where AI can make a remarkable impact, revolutionizing how businesses connect with their audience and achieve their marketing goals. 

We asked our Marketing Team about their utilization and implementation plans for AI in their projects this year. Their responses revealed interesting ways AI is being incorporated into our marketing initiatives.

 

Email Marketing predictive sending 

“For almost three years now, our Emailing Team has been using predictive analytics to determine the optimal time and content to send to each recipient in an email marketing campaign. At its core, predictive sending uses machine learning and AI to analyze historical open rate data and deduce or predict the ideal sending times for future emails. This approach boosted our open rates and allowed us to better align content with user preferences, thereby improving conversion.” (Carl B., Email Team) 

 

Automating small content creation 

“Since adopting it a few months ago, AI has become our go-to ally, helping us generate fresh ideas, plan content calendars, and consistently deliver helpful content to our audiences. Even more exciting is how AI’s insights fuel our content strategy. With its unique capabilities, AI brings fresh perspectives and valuable insights, empowering us to create content that truly resonates with our audience. AI has become our secret weapon, supercharging our ability to meet deadlines, prioritize effectively, and deliver impactful content that captivates and connects with our audience.” (Grace M., Content Team) 

 

Making content discovery easier  

“Over the years, we have diligently curated an extensive library of helpful articles to serve our audiences. To enhance their content discovery experience, we are implementing AI that intelligently recommends articles based on individuals’ unique interests, browsing patterns, and engagement metrics. With AI, discovering relevant content becomes effortless for our audiences. An AI-powered recommendation engine continuously learns and adapts, refining its suggestions to provide increasingly tailored recommendations.” (Fervic D., PM) 

 

Customer segmentation and targeting 

“With the help of AI, we could categorize clients into distinct segments and identify the most relevant target audience for marketing and sales efforts. This approach leverages the power of AI algorithms and advanced clustering techniques to analyze large volumes of data, identify patterns and trends, and make predictions about client behavior. Insights from this allow us to plan our sales and marketing efforts more effectively.” (Raffie, Sales Ops/Data Science) 

 

Improving the effectiveness of campaigns 

“Sentiment analysis can help identify trending topics or themes that are generating positive sentiments among our target audience. By analyzing social media conversations, customer interactions with our websites, and customer feedback, we can gain insights into the interests and emotions of our target audience, allowing us to fine-tune our messaging and improve our campaigns overall.” (Fervic D., PM)

 

 

Businesses are increasingly adopting AI, and its impact on marketing is nothing short of transformative. With every new AI use case, we embark on an exciting journey to discover the most effective ways to apply this technology in our strategies. We fine-tune our approaches for optimal results through experimentation, analysis, and learning from successes and challenges.