Code made with AI? Have it technically reviewed by a professional developer!

More and more business owners are using AI to build parts of their websites or applications. A contact form, an integration with another service, or even a complete feature can now be generated in a relatively short amount of time. This can be extremely useful and can save a lot of time.

But there is an important difference between code that works and code that works well.

AI can produce code that appears to do exactly what you asked. You test it a few times, everything seems to work, and you put it online. Only later do you sometimes discover that something is not quite right. A form might say that a message has been sent when the email never actually arrives. Or an integration with another service might only work as long as that service responds normally. As soon as something goes wrong, the user gets an error or an important part of your website stops working.

That does not mean you should not use AI to write code. Quite the opposite. AI can be a very useful tool when developing websites and applications. It is simply a good idea to have the code checked afterwards by someone who knows what to look for.

Why a technical check matters

When you use AI to generate code yourself, you often focus mainly on the result. Does the button work? Does the user end up on the right page? Does the form get submitted? If the answer is yes, everything can seem fine.

But there is often much more happening behind the scenes.

Data may be processed, stored, or sent somewhere else. External services may be involved, and users can enter information you did not originally expect. This is where problems can appear.

Take a simple contact form as an example. A visitor enters their name, email address, and message and then sees a message saying the form was successfully submitted. That sounds good, but it does not necessarily mean that the message actually reached you. The wrong email address might be used, the sending process might not be handled correctly, or an error from the mail server might simply be ignored.

To the visitor, the form appears to work. For you as the business owner, no message ever arrives.

Those are the kinds of problems you would much rather discover before a customer runs into them.

What I check during a review

During a technical review, I do not only check whether the code works. I also look at what happens when someone uses the website in a way you did not originally expect.

When it comes to security, I look at the information users can enter and what the website does with it. Is user input properly checked? Can someone access information they should not be able to see? Is sensitive information being handled safely?

For reliability, I look at whether a feature continues to work when something unexpected happens. What happens when someone submits an empty form? What happens when an external service is temporarily unavailable? And what happens when someone clicks the same button several times?

I also look at how the code itself is structured. This becomes especially important when you want to make changes to the website later. Code that works today but is difficult for anyone to understand a few months from now can eventually lead to unnecessary costs.

The goal is simple: make sure the code does not just work today, but can also be worked with later without causing new problems.

Common problems I come across

One example is an AI-generated script for sending emails. The email may technically be created and sent, but the sender or reply address might not be configured correctly. This can mean that a customer replies to an address that nobody actually monitors.

Another example is integrations with external APIs. Many websites rely on external services for payments, email, calendars, data, and other functionality. AI can quite easily generate the code needed to connect to these services. What is sometimes missing is proper handling of what should happen when the external service does not respond.

When everything works normally, you will not notice this.

But imagine the external service is unavailable for five minutes. Does the user get a clear message? Does the website try again? Or does the page simply keep loading?

These situations may not happen every day, but when they do happen, you want your website to handle them properly.

AI can also cause problems when it is used to change existing code. For example, you might ask AI to add a new feature to an existing system. The new feature works perfectly, but somewhere else on the website an existing feature has stopped working because of the changes.

Without proper testing, you might only discover this when a customer reports the problem.

When should you have your code checked?

You do not necessarily need an extensive review for every small change. But when AI is being used for important parts of your website or application, having the code checked is a sensible step.

Think about contact forms that receive customer enquiries, registration systems, payment functionality, or integrations with your accounting software or CRM. If one of these stops working correctly, it can have a direct impact on your business.

The same applies when you use AI to modify existing code, especially when you do not fully understand what the code is doing. You want to avoid a small change causing problems somewhere else in your system.

In most cases, finding a problem early is much easier and cheaper than fixing it after your website has already gone live and customers have started running into it.

How I approach a technical review

I start with the code that was generated or changed by AI and then look at the parts that are important to the way your website or application works. I test the relevant features, look for possible errors, and check how information is being handled.

I also try to look at the website from a real user's perspective. Not just whether the code is technically correct, but what happens when an actual visitor uses the feature.

That is often where the most useful findings come from.

After the review, I explain what looks good, where potential problems are, and which issues should be addressed first. If there are problems that need fixing, I can also take care of those for you.

The goal is not to give you a complicated report full of technical terms that does not help you move forward. The goal is to give you a clear idea of what is going on and what, if anything, needs to be fixed.

AI is useful, but a technical check still matters

AI is making it easier than ever to write code or make changes to an existing website. That is a development that businesses can benefit from. You just should not automatically assume that code is good simply because it was written by AI and everything appears to work on the screen.

A website can work perfectly during a few basic tests and still contain problems that only show up later.

That is why a short technical review can be a smart step before putting AI-generated code live. It gives you a better understanding of what you are actually putting online, reduces the chance of problems, and hopefully prevents you from discovering an issue because a customer was the first person to notice it.

Have you used AI to write code for your website or application and want to know whether it is properly built? Have the code checked before you put it live.