5 Grounded Observations on AI for Developers (Late 2025)

This is a grounded overview of current patterns; no forward-looking product rumors.

1) Agentic = tools + checks, not sci-fi autonomy

• Modern assistants (GPT-5.1/4o, Claude 4.5, Gemini 3 Pro preview) run tool calls (functions, file ops, search/code exec) and can chain steps, but still need guardrails and review.
• Good practice: require explicit approval for file changes/commands and review diffs/tests before merging.

2) IDE is the orchestration surface

• Most workflows run inside VS Code or forks (Cursor, Windsurf) or IDE plugins (Copilot, Continue, Aider in-terminal).
• Value comes from: diff previews, file/terminal permissions, context selection, and test integration—not just the model.

3) Pick models per task, not one “best”

• Use strong general models for reasoning/coding (e.g., GPT-5.1, Claude Opus 4.5).
• Use cost-efficient/fast models for boilerplate (Claude Haiku 4.5, OpenAI o1-mini, SWE-1.x in Windsurf).
• For self-hosted/privacy, choose OSS (Llama 3.1, DeepSeek Coder V2) with your own infra or gateways.

4) Real cost = tokens × efficiency

• Pricing headliners (e.g., Claude Opus 4.5 $5/$25 MTok; GPT-5.1 tiered; Gemini 3 Pro preview pricing) matter, but Effective Cost Per Task depends on prompt size, retries, and whether you cache/reuse system prompts.
• Tactics: trim context, cache system prompts (where supported), and batch recurring jobs.

5) Safety and review stay human-in-the-loop

• Even with better tool use and refusals, you still need: repo-level approvals, tests/linters, and secrets hygiene.
• Keep AI outputs behind code review; never paste secrets; and log/limit tool scopes in production agents.

Bottom line

• Today’s gains come from pairing strong models with disciplined workflows: scoped prompts, tool calls with approvals, diff/test review, and choosing the right model for the job and budget.

Sources (December 2025)

• OpenAI models/pricing: https://platform.openai.com/docs/models
• Anthropic models/pricing: https://claude.com/pricing
• Gemini API models/tools: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs
• OSS options: DeepSeek Coder V2 (https://github.com/deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-Coder-V2), Llama 3.1 (https://ai.meta.com/resources/models-and-libraries/)
• IDE/workflow tools: Cursor (https://cursor.com/), Windsurf/Codeium (https://codeium.com/pricing), Aider (https://aider.chat/), GitHub Copilot (https://github.com/features/copilot)