AI Code in Production: Best Practices for Reliability

The Reliability Problem

AI-generated code passes initial review because it reads well. But reading well and working correctly are different things.

Testing Strategies for AI Code

Property-Based Testing

AI-generated code needs property-based testing that verifies invariants across many random inputs.

Mutation Testing

Run mutation tests specifically on AI-generated modules.

Review Gates

The Two-Pass Review

1. Correctness pass: Does this code do what it claims?
2. Integration pass: Does this code interact correctly with the rest of the system?

Monitoring in Production

Canary Deployments

Deploy AI-generated changes behind a feature flag first.

The Bottom Line

AI code in production requires a different quality assurance approach.