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Anthropic released the results of a recent study they conducted where they warn of the impact that LLM agent use for software development tasks can have on learning and skill development. This impacts everyone, but is crucial for earlier-career developers who haven't developed as many of these skills without LLMs in the picture.

None of this means we shouldn't be using LLMs for software development tasks, but rather we have to be intentional about how we use them.

Importantly, using AI assistance didn’t guarantee a lower score. How someone used AI influenced how much information they retained. The participants who showed stronger mastery used AI assistance not just to produce code but to build comprehension while doing so—whether by asking follow-up questions, requesting explanations, or posing conceptual questions while coding independently.

And here is another excerpt from the end of the article:

Our study can be viewed as a small piece of evidence toward the value of intentional skill development with AI tools. Cognitive effort—and even getting painfully stuck—is likely important for fostering mastery. This is also a lesson that applies to how individuals choose to work with AI, and which tools they use.