In 2026, nearly everyone I interact with in tech wants to talk about AI. It comes up on LinkedIn, at meetups and conferences, and at work.
A lot of those conversations stay pretty surface-level. Someone says they’re excited about AI or that they’re “building with AI,” but I want to know what they’re building and how they’re doing it.
I’m an engineer. I want the technical details so we can learn from each other’s experiences.
I’ve noticed that “building with AI” can describe three different types of builders. This isn’t a maturity model where one category is automatically better than another. It’s a way to be more specific about what someone is actually doing.
I’ve listed them from most to least common based on my experience.
