An honest look at AI coding tools after a year of daily use

A year ago I was skeptical. Six months ago I was a convert. Now I have a measured view. Here's what I actually think after using Claude Code, Cursor, and Copilot in real projects. What got better than I expected Boilerplate speed. Writing the 15th CRUD endpoint, the 8th form component, the 12th test file following the same pattern - AI is dramatically faster at this. The mental cost of repetitive work is real, and eliminating it is valuable. Codebase exploration.