By Glue Team
What Is AI Technical Debt?
AI technical debt is code generated by AI tools that's lower quality than human-written code and requires more maintenance.
Characteristics
AI-generated code often:
- Duplicates existing functionality
- Violates project patterns
- Has lower test coverage
- Is more complex than necessary
- Contains subtle bugs
- Needs more refactoring
The Problem
AI tools generate code fast but don't understand:
- Your codebase
- Your patterns
- Your constraints
- Long-term maintainability
Result: high-velocity, low-quality code that becomes technical debt.
Managing AI Technical Debt
- Use AI for the right tasks - Tests, boilerplate, documentation
- Review aggressively - AI code needs heavy scrutiny
- Enforce code quality gates - Complexity, coverage, duplication checks
- Track metrics - Monitor code quality trend
- Refactor proactively - Don't let AI debt accumulate
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Is all AI-generated code debt?
A: No. AI code used for boilerplate, tests, and documentation is valuable. AI code in core logic is often debt.
Q: How much of our code should be AI-generated?
A: Keep it under 30-40%. Beyond that, quality typically suffers.
