I spent 1.5 years leading AI work at one of the largest foodtech companies in Poland. After hours I ship my own apps. So I know both sides: a big product in production and an empty repo that has to become something.
I work best at the start of a project, when the scope is still moving and a few hard decisions have to be made. I design the flow and write the code myself. AI speeds up my research, implementation, and testing, but it does not think for me.
My edge is not closing the most tickets. It is deciding what to build now, what to skip, and how to get to a version people can actually try.