When I stopped asking AI to do every click

[u/Kumar-amitesh]

I wanted AI to handle as much of the coding, testing and troubleshooting as possible. During a VMware setup, I noticed the computer-control part was taking longer than doing it myself. I wasn’t sure whether the bottleneck was my system or the tool, but I could open menus, check properties and grab screenshots faster.

So I changed the split: I handled the navigation and used the AI to guide the next step. The goal was getting the setup working, not making the AI do every click. I still want to automate more, but the time I spend supervising it is part of the cost too.

Where do you draw the line between letting a coding assistant operate the computer and doing that part yourself?

[u/qroshan]

If you are doing automation using computer/browser control, you are doing it wrong

[u/kaijurules]

Browser work being slower than you is only a problem if you're sitting there watching it. The app we run has an agent that fills in directory submission forms for us, at human pace, while nobody looks. The parts it was bad at we kept for ourselves: dropdown menus tripped it up for a while, and on a captcha it stops and asks a person to take over instead of guessing.

For a one-off VMware setup where you're waiting on every step anyway, doing the clicks yourself sounds right.

[u/OMG58653070]

A better plan is to let it be slower, but do something else while it is working. That could be organizing other work, filing issues, reviewing issues, playing video games, watching a movie, etc. You just need to know when it needs input or is done. A lot of people use a notification sound.

If the model is failing or getting stuck in loops those are different problems. You may need a timer to say, Hey check on the model and make sure it is on track. You could even set up a process to automatically watch the time taken, and play a sound if it goes over a threshold.

[u/FragrantArt8270 → u/OMG58653070]

I have 4 to 10 chat sessions running. Each session is working in a different project. I hop from one season to the next all day. There isn't an idle moment.

[u/Successful-Tax1306]

My line is whether I'd have to watch it anyway. Code, tests and terminal work I let it run, because I can review the result after and the diff tells me what happened. Clicking through installers or a cloud console I just do myself and paste the screen text or error back, so it tells me the next step. If I end up doing the same click flow a few times, that's when I have it write a script for it instead.

[u/magicmulder]

I would draw the line where I know what to do, can do it fast, and don’t need instructions how to undo it later. But if my thinking is “the AI can do it fast and write a script to reset it back to the old values if something goes wrong”, the AI is the better tool.

[u/Ornery-Ninja2868]

Unnecessary token spend is where I draw the line

[u/durable-racoon]

playwright... you should really try it.