I Stopped Using Heavy IDEs. AI Became My IDE.

I used to think a serious developer needed a serious IDE.

Big project? Open PhpStorm. Design work? Open Photoshop. Need every refactor, every inspection, every plugin, every panel, every button? Load the heavy tool and wait for the machine to breathe again.

But something changed. Not overnight, and not because those tools suddenly became bad. They are still powerful. The change is that AI started taking over the parts of the IDE I actually needed most.

Today, I spend more time in VS Code and the terminal than in heavy IDEs. My machine feels lighter. My workflow feels less crowded. And honestly, I do not miss the old setup as much as I thought I would.

The old IDE was a safety net