# Design and Planning Are the Key Skills for Building Software with AI Coding Agents

DevFeed: [Design and Planning Are the Key Skills for Building Software with AI Coding Agents](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/the-two-skills-that-actually-matter-when-ai-writes-the-code-18326.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://newsletter.aiengineer.co/p/the-two-skills-that-actually-matter>)

Author: Owain Lewis

Published: 2026-08-14T12:12:26Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [The AI Engineer](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/the-ai-engineer.md>)

Topics: [AI-assisted coding](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ai-assisted-coding.md>), [AI Development](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ai-development.md>), [Software Engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/software-engineering.md>), [Development](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/development.md>)

Tags: [agents](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/agents.md>), [ai](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai.md>), [ai-agents](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai-agents.md>), [ai-coding](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai-coding.md>), [coding-agents](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/coding-agents.md>), [design](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/design.md>), [development-process](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/development-process.md>), [requirements](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/requirements.md>), [verification](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/verification.md>)

## AI overview

The article argues that AI coding agents can handle much of software implementation, testing, and deployment. It says engineers should focus most on design and planning: defining requirements, making technical decisions, and breaking work into tasks agents can execute reliably.

## Source excerpt

How to design better software and turn it into tasks AI agents can execute reliably.