The best AI coding assistants

Today, I’m about to share the best AI tools for coding, a blunt take on Meta’s AI, and why agents not chatbots are the real future. Let’s dive in.

In today’s post:

• AI coding assistants: how to pick the best

• Why Meta AI totally misses the mark

• Chatbots? Overhyped. Agents? Different game

• Pega gets it and they’re doubling down

• The most interesting AI tools this week

What’s Trending Today

AI coding assistants

Choosing an AI coding assistant? Read this first

After two years of rigorous testing, ZDNET’s David Gewirtz has named 2025’s best AI coding assistants and revealed which ones to steer clear of.

• ChatGPT Plus remains the best overall, with a solid 4/4 score and a useful Mac app.

• Perplexity Pro scored just as well but login via email-only PIN is its Achilles heel.

• Google’s Gemini Pro 2.5 improved massively, but its strict token limits make it frustrating to use.

• Microsoft Copilot shocked everyone by going from worst to top-tier and it’s free.

• Claude 4 Sonnet, the free version, outperformed its expensive sibling, Claude 4 Opus.

• Elon’s Grok surprised with decent results and a unique LLM backbone, one to watch.

• Free versions of ChatGPT and Perplexity did well too, with a few limitations on usage.

Here’s what I think about this:

We’re watching the AI tools mature in real time and the leaderboard is shifting fast. If you’re building with AI, don’t get attached. What works today might fall behind tomorrow. Test everything, pay for only what delivers, and treat every result like a draft not gospel. I have been using Claude for coding and it has been a life-saver for me.

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Meta

Meta’s chatbot may be more public than you think

Meta launched its AI app with a bold bet: people would want to publicly share their conversations with a chatbot. But it turns out, most of them didn’t know they were doing it.

Here’s what happened:

• The Meta AI app lets users share their chats with a single tap,  but it’s not clear they realize what that means.

• From awkward questions to outright confessions, everything is suddenly out in the open.

• One post featured a man asking why “some farts stink more” in an audio recording.

• Others asked about tax evasion, legal advice, or how to meet  women. Real names, addresses, and court details are being shared, no filters, no warnings.

• Meta didn’t respond to press questions, but the screenshots speak for themselves.

• It’s eerily reminiscent of AOL’s 2006 privacy debacle, except this time, users are doing it themselves.

Here’s what I think:

The line between private and public online has always been fuzzy. But Meta’s decision to blur it further without clear signals or consent is reckless. This isn’t a feature; it’s a warning sign. If people don’t even know they’re sharing, who is this product really serving?

Real-world AI

Agentic AI is here and it’s not just another tool

Unlike the generative AI you’re used to, agentic AI doesn’t wait for instructions. It acts. And it's already showing up in offices, factories, and frontline jobs.

Here’s everything you need to know:

• Agentic AI can make autonomous decisions and take real action not just respond to prompts.

• Companies like AVEVA and WorkJam say it’s improving infrastructure, speeding decisions, and reducing downtime.

• In retail and hospitality, it’s replacing outdated tools and cutting the grunt work for frontline teams.

• In logistics, agentic systems are automating responses to disruptions across complex supply chains. Even accounting firms are using AI agents to do junior-level tasks with surprising accuracy.

• Some agents are even training other agents, raising new questions about the role of human workers.

• But experts agree: humans still matter. Agentic AI needs oversight to refine, correct, and contextualize.

Here’s what I think about this “Agentic AI“ takeover:

This isn’t about losing jobs, it’s about redefining them. Agentic AI shifts us from task execution to task orchestration. If we treat these systems as coworkers, not replacements, we’ll build teams that combine speed, context, and judgment better than either could alone.

Strategy

Why Pega’s agentic AI strategy stands out

At PegaWorld 2025, the process automation veteran laid out a contrarian and refreshingly grounded; vision for agentic AI in the enterprise.

Here’s everything you need to know:

• While most vendors slap AI on top of legacy stacks, Pega is rethinking from the ground up.

• Pega sees prompts as unreliable for business-critical tasks, preferring agentic AI guided by structured workflows.

• Their new “Blueprint” tool uses natural language, PDFs, even old demo videos to modernize legacy apps.

• Blueprint gets you 80% of the way to a functioning app, the rest is handled in Pega Infinity.

• The Agentic Process Fabric connects workflows across modernized apps, building coherent, end to end automation.

• Pega splits its AI agents into four roles: Design, Conversation, Optimization, and Automation, each with distinct focus.

• Their core pitch? Predictable AI, systems that act reliably because humans design and approve the logic first.

In a sea of probabilistic promises, Pega is betting on predictability. Their focus on orchestrated workflows over freeform prompts won’t win the hype race but it might win trust. And when the stakes are high, predictability beats magic every time.

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