Debugging with AI: Can It Replace an Experienced Developer?

A developer put artificial intelligence to the test, feeding three complex React and Next.js bugs to Claude AI to see if it could match human debugging skills. The results were mixed at best. While AI successfully fixed a schema validation error by adding missing phone and address fields to mock data, it struggled with more nuanced problems like double loading skeletons during page navigation and a mysterious redirect error caused by server actions wrapped in Suspense. The AI confidently proposed contradictory explanations for the same bug and sometimes introduced new problems while solving others. When debugging required understanding system behavior or anticipating future user needs rather than pattern recognition, the AI "falls on its ass," as the developer put it. The verdict? AI excels at standard issues like runtime errors and null checks, making it a useful starting point for debugging, but developers still need to know when to stop prompting and start thinking for themselves.