Do You Smell That? Hidden Technical Debt in AI Development

Rushing AI products from prototype to production often creates "code smells," which are subtle warning signs of future maintenance difficulties and system fragility. These issues are not bugs but rather poor design choices like duplicated code, massive "god scripts," and a lack of automated tests that compromise long-term reliability. While generative AI speeds up initial coding, it can worsen this problem by producing code that lacks business context, leading to extensive debugging down the line. This hidden technical debt ultimately results in slower delivery, constant firefighting, and systems that become unmanageable once the original developers move on.