Proving Code Works with Evidence

In 2026, engineering teams need to shift from “just ship code” to “ship code with proof.”

I’ve been hearing from friends across different companies: some junior engineers dumping AI-generated PRs on teammates and expecting code review to “handle the rest.” We haven’t adapted our engineering culture to the AI era.

Here’s what should be non-negotiable in every PR going forward:

1. Manual testing evidence — Terminal output, screenshots, screen recordings. If the engineer hasn’t verified it themselves, it doesn’t work.

2. Automated tests — Every change bundles tests that prove it works. LLMs make this easier than ever.

The accountability sits with the human, not the AI. A computer can never be held accountable.

Make this part of your onboarding. Make it part of your code review culture. Train every engineer — especially juniors from day 1 — on writing code that’s easy to test, both manually and automatically.

The bar has shifted. It’s no longer “can you write code?” It’s “can you prove your code works with evidence?”

If we don’t build this into our culture now, we’ll drown in the false sense of productivity — AI generates 80% of your code, but …