Why AI Adoption Feels So Hard -Lessons from Working with Developers

By Evgeny Shadchney, Venture Partner at If Capital

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Developers are some of the smartest, most curious and most rational people I know. Which makes it all the more surprising how many of them still treat AI as a sidekick rather than a genuine shift. They are using the tools, like GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT, but few are fully embracing what AI means for how we build software.

After working with engineering teams, I have noticed a pattern. It is not the tools they resist. It is the implications.

Why Developers Struggle with AI:

For most developers, the challenge is not one of capability. It is a matter of worldview. Writing software is more than just a job. It is part of their identity. It is how they have gained respect, confidence and a sense of mastery. They have spent years honing skills, building mental models and debugging complex systems. Now they are being asked to accept that a tool which does not understand anything can write decent code most of the time.

It is understandably disorienting. It feels like being a professional cyclist and finding out electric bikes are now allowed in the race.

So many developers push back. Not angrily or overtly, but quietly. They treat AI like Stack Overflow, useful, but not transformative. They try to slot it into their existing way of working, rather than adapting to what is actually a new paradigm.

What Needs to Shift:

Adopting AI is not just about picking up new tools. It requires a fundamental change in thinking. The best developers I know are starting to realise this. They understand that writing code is no longer the end goal. It is a by-product. The most valuable skill now is not deep knowledge of a language or framework, but the ability to design and manage AI-enabled workflows that produce meaningful results.

This is not easy. Especially when your confidence, credibility and income are tied to the old model. As Upton Sinclair put it, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

How to Lead Through It:

So how do you drive change as a founder, CTO or team lead?

You do not argue. You do not send long emails. You do not issue mandates from the top.

You lead by showing.

If an engineer says a feature will take six days, and the CTO quietly builds it in four hours using AI tools, the point is made. Not through speeches, but through results. That one act can shift more mindsets than any presentation. 

Advice for Technical Leaders:

• Use AI tools yourself before asking others to

• Demonstrate the new approach through your work

• Show what excellence looks like in today’s environment

• Be patient, as mindset shifts take time

• Remember, developers are not being difficult, they are protecting what they have spent years mastering

  
  

This is the first time in recent memory that developers are the disrupted, not the disruptors. That is why it feels so strange. But with the right leadership, not pressure, but example, teams can adapt, grow, and thrive in this new era of software development.

Evgeny Shadchnev co-founded Makers, one of Europe’s first coding bootcamps, and works with early-stage startups on product development and team culture.