Code review was never about the code

If you work in software (as a designer, developer, PM, or any adjacent role), you’re probably aware of just how much AI has changed the way code is created. And if you’re an engineer, you’re definitely feeling the downstream impacts of AI’s speed. Way, way more code is being written. But the way we review code hasn’t changed that much. But if you’re not familiar, code review is a step in the software development process where developers look at code before it gets shipped. It’s been a cornerstone of engineering teams’ workflows for almost as long as there have been engineering teams. AI coding has turned code review into a bottleneck; a human can only look at so much code, so reviews have started taking longer, and each engineer’s review backlog is growing exponentially.1 AI code review tools have stepped into the breach, eliciting an earnest grumble from developers: AI reviewing AI-written code is like a student grading their own test. Execs don’t have much sympathy, though. We can…