The Productivity Illusion: Why AI Feels Fast But Isn't

AI Isn't Making You Faster

TLDR: A controlled trial by METR found that experienced developers with top AI tools were actually 19% slower, despite predicting a 24% speedup. The gap between perceived and real productivity is enormous, and the few who do benefit from AI treat it as full task replacement, not an accelerator.

AI isn't making you faster