Our firm recently implemented a pilot that promises to dramatically accelerate our developer workflow by leveraging AI in code reviews. Feedback is now instant and actionable – and available in the very environments where our developers work.

The Problem: Time-consuming pull requests

A pull request is a developer’s proposal (after writing code to solve an issue/feature/bug) to merge changes in one branch of a code repository into (usually) the main branch. The resulting merged code is what gets promoted to production.

This is generally how junior developers submit code changes for review by more senior developers. These code reviews are critical but eat up a lot of senior developer time. Senior developers at RiskSpan face many of the same challenges as senior developers everywhere in that they juggle multiple priorities and struggle to find the time necessary to provide thorough, timely feedback on every pull request. This can lead to delays, inconsistent quality, and “technical debt” over time.

The Solution: An AI Merge Agent

At AWS re:Invent, we discovered Qodo Merge, an AI-powered tool that automates and enhances pull request reviews. Now live in our Bitbucket repositories, Qodo Merge:

  • Analyzes code changes and autogenerates pull request descriptions
  • Checks ticket compliance to ensure requirements are met
  • Flags security risks (e.g., command injection, cross-site scripting)
  • Suggests improvements in data processing, error handling, and logic
  • Provides real-time feedback, accelerating development cycles

Why this matters for our development lifecycle

This AI solution is revolutionizing and streamlining RiskSpan’s software development process by:

  • Standardizing our code review best practices
  • Reducing technical debt by enforcing quality baselines
  • Accelerating junior developers and making them more efficient by providing instant guidance
  • Freeing up senior engineers to focus their efforts on high-impact strategic work

What’s Next?

Having completed our initial pilot testing, we are now rolling out Qodo Merge across RiskSpan’s various code repositories. Next up: training sessions and broader adoption across all of our modeling and engineering teams.

AI is transforming how we build, validate, and deploy code. Stay tuned for insights on how this initiative is improving our development speed and quality!