Transforming Engineers: How AI Coding Adoption Grew at Plaid

Transforming Engineers: How AI Coding Adoption Grew at Plaid

Imagine a world where engineers not only embrace technology but ride its newest waves to supercharge their productivity. At Plaid, the narrative centers around a daring journey to integrate artificial intelligence deeply into the fabric of everyday engineering work. The story unfolds with a mission: empower all Plaid engineers to become AI power users, transforming their approach to coding and problem-solving.

The Challenge of Change

Plaid's engineers are already high performers, adept at navigating complex technical landscapes. The challenge was to shift hundreds of these experts toward regular use of advanced AI tools without missing a beat in ongoing projects. With a clear aim to make AI an integral part of the team's toolkit, Plaid embraced strategies that could inspire engineering leaders across tech industries.

Pioneering AI Adoption Through Strategic Implementation

Adopting AI tools is not a one-click achievement. Plaid embarked on a six-month odyssey, where more than 75% of its engineers became regular users of AI coding tools. This transformation involved streamlining AI tool pilots and procurement processes, cutting traditional timelines from weeks to mere days. The key was finding tools that provided immediate value signals, avoiding setups with cumbersome prerequisites.

Plaid made their move on solid ground, using real development on large open-source projects as their testing arena. They built a robust framework for evaluating AI tools, carefully considering data handling and potential compliance challenges. This systematic approach ensured that security protocols and legal requirements were addressed upfront, smoothing the path for rapid deployment.

The Importance of Ownership in AI Adoption

Transforming engineering through AI requires more than just deploying tools; it demands strategic ownership. Plaid recognized that simply enabling an AI tool wasn't enough. Like nurturing a garden, adoption requires dedicated care. They plunged into analytics, setting up comprehensive dashboards to meticulously track and understand how each AI tool was used, turning retention and usage trends into success metrics.

This ownership mindset drove deep engagement, with teams reaching out to users individually to identify what was working and what needed improvement. They crafted detailed internal tracking systems, treating AI adoption as if it were their own product, spotting trends and patterns within various engineering cohorts.

Creating In-House Content for Enhanced Engagement

One of Plaid's most innovative strategies was creating exclusive in-house content tailored to their specific workflows. While many AI tools come with standard guides and demos, nothing quite matches customized content that addresses specific workflows within your actual systems. Plaid discovered that producing quick demos and short-form videos showcasing how AI tools operate within their real codebase significantly increased organic engineer engagement.

Internal videos demonstrating how AI could write and debug unit tests on Plaid's code were instrumental in encouraging exploration of these technological frontiers. This approach not only enhanced understanding but also sparked enthusiasm for AI adoption, turning skeptics into advocates. Engineers became storytellers of their own AI journey, sharing victories and challenges through internal channels like Slack, creating a positive feedback loop of knowledge sharing.

AI Day: A Catalyst for Revolution

Stepping away from the ordinary, Plaid's AI Day was a splash of innovation that achieved remarkable results. With 80% of engineers participating and over 90% satisfaction scores, this event brought engineers together to experiment with AI through hands-on workshops. Engineers crafted applications through simple prompts, engaged in deep dives on LLM fundamentals, and explored AI tools using Plaid's public APIs.

This explosive event didn't just build excitement—it birthed new internal projects and surfaced the potent possibilities of AI tools. The dedicated time away from routine work allowed engineers to witness firsthand how AI could transform their work landscape, turning theoretical concepts into engaging reality.

Complementing Rather Than Replacing

Understanding engineers' strong attachments to their beloved code editors, Plaid smartly positioned AI tools as sidekicks, not replacements. They promoted the concept of "dual wielding" AI tools alongside existing Integrated Development Environments, easing the transition into adoption. This approach minimized resistance and maximized acceptance, allowing new AI tools to enhance current workflows rather than disrupt long-standing practices.

By focusing on integration rather than overhaul, Plaid ensured that AI tools complemented existing favorite systems, making the adoption process feel like joining forces rather than overthrowing established workflows. This strategy proved crucial in achieving high adoption rates across the engineering organization.

Overcoming Challenges and Growing Further

With innovation comes growing pains, and Plaid openly acknowledges ongoing challenges in their AI journey. Navigating cost controls, benchmarking AI coding tools, and adapting to new AI-centric failure modes were part of the learning curve. The company is actively building reference catalogs of challenging tasks as learning tools for future advancements, creating repositories that guide continuous improvement.

These challenges haven't deterred progress but rather informed smarter approaches to AI integration. Plaid embraced these insights, using them to refine internal processes and develop better frameworks for managing AI tool adoption at scale.

A Broader Horizon

Armed with a solid framework for AI integration, Plaid now looks toward expanding these efficiencies beyond coding. AI's applicability extends into diverse realms like data analysis, incident response, and other areas of the Software Development Life Cycle, paving paths for greater efficiency across the entire engineering organization.

The story of Plaid represents a transformation where traditional processes evolved to embrace AI-powered optimization. It's a narrative where vision met preparation, and technology mingled with creativity in an unforgettable embrace. As AI continues to grow and evolve, Plaid stands poised to shape its course, ready to harness its power for the next chapter in their engineering journey.

This transformation demonstrates that successful AI adoption isn't about replacing human expertise but rather about amplifying it through thoughtful integration, strategic ownership, and community-driven learning. Plaid's approach offers a blueprint for organizations seeking to navigate their own AI adoption journey while maintaining productivity and fostering innovation.

Transforming Engineers: How we grew AI coding adoption at Plaid | Plaid

One of our top priorities is to help all Plaid engineers become AI power users. The problem was how to change habits while keeping our ship moving.

PlaidClay Allsopp & Joshua Carroll