Does your quote reflect AI-assisted development?
By the YourSideTech review team · · 6 min read
AI coding assistants have changed how software is built. Developers now use them every day to write routine code, create tests, fix bugs and document their work. For many common tasks, the time involved has dropped noticeably. So it is fair to ask: has the price of the work changed too?
What AI tools speed up, and what they don’t
AI assistance helps most with well-understood, repetitive work: standard login and signup flows, forms, basic dashboards, admin screens, routine integrations, boilerplate code, tests and documentation. These are exactly the items that often fill a large part of a quote.
It helps much less with the work that needs judgement: understanding your business, designing the right solution, solving unusual problems, reviewing and testing what was produced, and taking responsibility for the result. AI-generated code still has to be checked carefully, and sometimes fixed.
Why a quote may not have changed
Many estimates are still built from old templates and past projects: a feature is estimated the way it was a few years ago. Vendors also handle time savings differently: some lower prices, some invest in quality or take on fixed-price risk. None of these is wrong by itself, and it’s reasonable to ask how your estimate was made.
Effort, value and fair pricing
Faster delivery does not automatically mean a fixed price is unfair. If a vendor agrees to deliver a defined result for a fixed price and takes the risk, finishing sooner can be their reward. What matters is that the price reflects the scope, the expertise and the risk, and that hourly estimates are not based on outdated assumptions.
Questions to ask your vendor
Do you use AI-assisted development, and for which parts of this project? How is that reflected in the hours? Which items in the estimate are routine features, and which are genuinely custom? If we pay by the hour, how will we see the time actually spent? Who reviews and tests AI-generated code before it reaches us?
The goal is transparency, not a discount
A good vendor will have clear answers. The aim isn’t to squeeze honest work, but to make sure you’re paying for the work as it is done today. If you’d like an experienced reviewer to check whether your quote reflects that, send it to us.