AI Coding Assistants: Cursor AI & GitHub Copilot What Worked, What Didn’t

Overview

Our fast-competing software landscape where efficiency and accuracy are not just desirable; they are truly essential. With AI adoption, teams are already gaining a competitive edge. Including the coding assistants rapidly transforms how developers write, test, and maintain code. Basically, integrating these assistants in development workflow can automate repetitive tasks, offer smart suggestions, and help the team deliver high-quality, robust software.

From generating boilerplate code to automating unit tests, the assistants offer real-time debugging tips and reviews to pull out requests. However, AI assistants have become indispensable teammates. No matter if you are a solo developer or building a side project or a part of an enterprise team managing complex microservices, AI in coding takes your productivity to the next level by significantly reducing error rates.

In this blog, we explore how AI coding assistants improve developer efficiency and accuracy, highlighting two leading AI developer tools, GitHub Copilot and Cursor AI. Discuss the best practices for integrating AI into your daily workflow. We have also addressed potential pitfalls, developer challenges, and real-world feedback to help you get the most value out of these intelligent tools.

How we have used Cursor AI to resolve a Challenging Task

Recently, we have come across a challenge of fixing a bug in Ruby on Rails codebase and the task must be completed within a day. Coming from a background in Java, Node.js, and React, Ruby was a completely foreign domain for us. We thought of using Cursor AI for assistance, no doubt we were amazed with the results. From analyzing the context to providing precise suggestions and was very helpful for code correction. Instead of being unfamiliar with the framework, Cursor AI’s powerful insights helped us solve the issues efficiently and meet deadlines.

Cursor AI for Boosting Productivity

For Stryv we developed react components and implemented node.js services. We leveraged Cursor AI to automate boilerplate code generation and receive context-aware code suggestions derived from codebase. It also helped to debug code effectively, streamlining the process and improving overall development speed.

Challenges While Using Cursor AI: What you Need to Know

However, our experience with Cursor AI wasn’t without challenges. While working on a React component where we were asked to add an element, Cursor’s suggestions unintentionally altered the functionality of both the component’s parent and child elements unnecessarily. This highlighted, despite being powerful, AI still requires careful oversight and human judgment. 

During Node.js service development, we also encountered issues with Cursor generating overly complex logic and extra code that didn’t fully align with the context.

Accelerated Development with GitHub Copilot

Our experience with GitHub Copilot has also been notably positive. Its ability to autocomplete code intelligently based on the context of previous lines saves time and reduces boilerplate work. It enhances development speed and allows me to stay focused without repeatedly switching between documentation and the code editor.

Challenges Using GitHub Copilot: What you Need to Know

Despite the benefits, GitHub Copilot has its limitations. While working on a larger codebase, I noticed that the tool occasionally made irrelevant suggestions due to limited contextual awareness. Additionally, it sometimes generated insecure code patterns or redundant logic that needed manual correction. These experiences reinforced the importance of thorough code review when integrating AI-generated content.

AI Coding Tools

How GitHub Copilot and Cursor AI Work

Coding with GitHub Copilot

GitHub Copilot is powered by OpenAI’s Codex, a descendant of the GPT-3 language model specifically trained on billions of lines of public code repositories. It works by predicting the next piece of code you want to write based on the context of the file and your current cursor position. Using deep learning and natural language understanding, Copilot can generate code snippets, entire functions, or even complex algorithms by analyzing patterns and structures from its vast training dataset. It continuously adapts its suggestions based on your coding style and the specific project context.

Copilot integrates directly into popular IDEs like Visual Studio Code, enabling seamless inline code completions and contextual suggestions without interrupting developer flow. While Copilot excels in generating boilerplate and common patterns, it relies on the developer to validate the correctness and security of the generated code.

Coding with Cursor AI

Cursor AI is an AI-native integrated development environment designed to blend the power of multiple AI models with developer workflows. Unlike Copilot, which functions primarily as an autocomplete and suggestion engine, Cursor integrates features like multi-file editing, inline explanations, and semantic search within the codebase.

Cursor leverages advanced natural language processing and machine learning models including OpenAI’s GPT and ChatGPT variants to provide context-aware assistance that spans entire projects rather than just single files. Its core strength lies in understanding the developer’s intent and the broader code context, which helps in debugging, refactoring, and navigating unfamiliar codebases.

Cursor also supports seamless integration with GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT, allowing developers to combine generative AI coding assistance with deep contextual insights and interactive code exploration all within a single interface.

Key Benefits of AI Coding Assistants

1. Increased Development Efficiency

• • Code Autocompletion & Suggestions: Speeds writing functions, classes, and boilerplate.
• • Rapid Prototyping: Instantly generate scaffolding for APIs, data models, or UI components.
• • Task Automation: Write tests, refactor code, or generate documentation with a prompt.

2. Improved Accuracy and Code Quality

• • Error Detection and Debugging: AI can identify and explain logical errors and suggest fixes.
• • Code Review Assistance: Suggests optimizations, flags issues, and enhances code clarity.
• • Best Practices Enforcement: Maintains consistency with naming, architecture, and style guides.

3.Enhanced Learning and Onboarding

• • Real-Time Documentation: Explains unfamiliar code or APIs in simple terms.
• • Natural Language Queries: Ask technical questions in plain English and get working examples.

Developer Challenges and Feedback

While AI tools offer significant productivity boosts, developers report a few common challenges:

• • Context Limitations: Tools like Copilot may suggest outdated or contextually irrelevant code when working with large codebases.
• • Integration Friction: Switching between AI tools and existing IDEs can disrupt workflow, though IDE-native tools like Cursor reduce this friction.
• • Trust and Confidence: Developers often double-check AI-suggested code due to occasional hallucinations or inefficient logic.
• • Learning Curve: Some developers need time to understand how to prompt the tools effectively and integrate them into daily routines.

Developers Good and Bad Experiences

Positive Experiences

• • Rapid Debugging: Developers using Cursor AI found they could fix bugs 30-50% faster with inline explanations and suggestions.
• • Onboarding Boost: Junior developers shared that GitHub Copilot reduced their ramp-up time on new projects significantly.

Negative Experiences

• • Misleading Code Suggestions: Some developers noted Copilot occasionally generated insecure or inefficient code that wasn’t immediately obvious.
• • High Dependency: A few teams expressed concern that constant reliance on AI tools reduced problem-solving skills in junior team members.
• • Tool Fatigue: Developers testing multiple assistants found that constantly switching tools or dealing with limited context became distracting.

Latest Reports on Efficiency and Accuracy Improvements

GitHub Copilot

• • A GitHub study in partnership with Microsoft showed developers using Copilot completed tasks 55% faster than those who did not.
• • Developers with Copilot access had a 53.2% higher rate of completing unit tests successfully.
• • 88% of developers reported that Copilot helped them stay in the flow and feel more productive.

Cursor AI

• • Reports indicate a 2-3x productivity increase for developers using Cursor AI, especially in debugging and legacy code refactoring.
• • Cursor AI’s seamless integration with GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT improved task turnaround by up to 60% in certain pilot studies.

Advantages of AI Coding Assistants

• • Speed & Automation: Saves hours on boilerplate, testing, and documentation.
• • Knowledge Access: Makes best practices and documentation more accessible.
• • Onboarding Support: Helps new developers contribute faster.
• • Quality Control: Enforces style guides and reduces bugs early.

Limitations of AI Coding Assistants

• • Accuracy Issues: AI may hallucinate or generate incorrect logic.
• • Security Concerns: Autosuggestions could introduce vulnerabilities if unchecked.
• • Over-reliance Risk: Developers might lose touch with core programming concepts.
• • Cost: Premium tools and plugins may incur added expenses on a scale.

Incorporating AI into your development toolkit isn’t just about keeping up with trends it’s about working smarter, reducing toil, and delivering better, software faster. As tools mature, the line between developer and assistant will blur, making AI a core part of every engineering team’s workflow.

However, it’s important to remember that AI coding assistants cannot replace human developers at least not yet. Complex decision-making, architectural planning, and enterprise-level logic still require human interpretation, experience, and creativity. AI is a powerful collaborator, but the strategic thinking and problem-solving that fuel innovation remains uniquely human.