Four Ways to Collaborate with AI in Development
The rapid advancement of AI technology keeps reshaping development workflows. Based on hands-on experience, we categorize AI-assisted development into four approaches. None is absolutely superior — the differences lie in use cases, technical proficiency, and cost management.
1. Tab Auto Completion
Target Audience: Those who can Google syntax and have basic knowledge Use Case: Features achievable with one or a few functions Cost: Free Tool of Choice: VSCode + GitHub Copilot
The simplest approach. Type a comment or function name in the editor, and the AI generates code suggestions based on your prompt — press Tab to accept. In WordPress development, common tasks like loading JS/CSS, hiding the admin toolbar, and printing error logs can be completed quickly. GitHub Copilot offers 2,000 free auto-completion uses per month, sufficient for daily needs.
2. Chat Coding
Target Audience: Those with basic programming syntax knowledge Use Case: Full feature development including frontend and backend Cost: Starting from $20/month Tool of Choice: VSCode + ChatGPT Desktop
Start from an idea and discuss with AI, analyzing technical feasibility, then actually writing the code. The benefit is learning from AI-generated code, and you can ask it to remember your development habits to produce code that follows WordPress standards. Combined with auto-completion, development speed can double.
The downside is switching between windows and manually finding where to paste code in which file. Once the codebase grows to a certain size, helping AI understand the context takes considerable time. However, tools like GitHub Copilot, Cline, and Roo Code now offer chat interfaces within VSCode, with Agent modes that automatically understand the code.
3. Vibe Coding
Target Audience: Those without programming background who just want to bring ideas to life Use Case: Various applications and websites Cost: $20-100/month Tool of Choice: Cursor + Claude Sonnet model
Since language models developed reasoning capabilities, AI’s programming ability has made quantum leaps. Give it a requirement, and it will think, reason, implement, and even test on its own. Anyone with an idea can develop a prototype at blazing speed.
We used this approach to build a social platform using technologies we were completely unfamiliar with, completing core features in under two hours. But the risk of Vibe Coding is that “it runs” doesn’t mean “it’s good” — performance and security still need subsequent attention.
4. Spec Coding
Target Audience: Developers who need production-grade quality Use Case: Commercial products and client projects Cost: Claude Code MAX plan Tool of Choice: PhpStorm + Claude Code
This is our primary approach. Write complete specification documents first (user stories, acceptance criteria, technical architecture), then hand them to AI for implementation. Every step follows the pattern: plan, confirm, then implement.
The biggest difference from Vibe Coding: you maintain full control instead of letting AI freestyle. This produces code with consistent quality, clear architecture, and high maintainability, suitable for products requiring long-term operation.
Each of the four approaches has its strengths. The key is choosing the most suitable development mode based on project requirements.