David Gewirtz / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET
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ZDNET's key takeaways
Xcode 26.1 AI was unusable. Xcode 26.3 AI is a big leap.
AI-driven migration delivered massive change in under two days.
One rule fixed it: no background agents, frequent status updates.
I am sure that the time will come when AI coding doesn't seem like some amazing new magic ripped from the future. But not today.
The project I've been working on for the last two days counts as the third major product I've done using AI coding. Actually, it's more like the third major project set, because I added four premium add-ons to my WordPress security plugin, I built iPhone, Mac, and Apple Watch apps for my 3D printer filament manager, and I've just made major inroads into a surprisingly powerful sewing pattern manager on iOS.
Also: Xcode 26.3 finally brings agentic coding to Apple's developer tools
I've found that when I work in a different AI environment, I like to work on a unique codebase. That way, I don't get different AIs confused about the same thing. So when Apple released its Xcode 26.3 candidate, supposedly with substantially enhanced AI integration, I needed a new project to work on with it.
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