The Evolving Stack: My Real-Time AI Journey
A live, personal record of moving from free AI tools to a practical developer stack built around learning, experimentation, and responsible AI-assisted coding.
If you had asked me in early 2024 what my AI plan was, I would have said I did not have one. I was moving between free tools, browser tabs, and experiments to see what helped me build better software.
That curiosity has gradually become a more intentional developer workflow. This article is a living record of what I have tried, what I have learned, what I stopped paying for, and what I am using now.
The evolving timeline
2022
The spark
ChatGPT launched publicly and made the future of AI-assisted software development feel immediate. It planted the first serious questions about how developers would learn and work with these systems.
2023
A career pivot
I left my job and spent time rethinking my direction. I missed some of the first consumer AI excitement, but that pause gave me room to build a more deliberate path into web development and AI.
2024
Building the foundation
Google Gemini became a playground for personal coding and writing, while ChatGPT helped with text processing, debugging, and exploring ideas. Google AI Essentials gave me a structured introduction to prompt engineering and verification.
2025
Learning and automation
Hatch AI Bootcamp helped me explore practical automation, documentation workflows, and data safety. GitHub Copilot introduced more direct AI assistance inside the editor.
2026
From prompts to workflows
AIxTech, OpenAI Build Week, and daily project work shifted my focus from isolated prompts to multi-step workflows, structured outputs, human review, and complete applications.
Learning roadmap
2024
Sponsored
Google AI Essentials
Completed. Learned prompt fundamentals, technical summarisation, idea generation, hallucination awareness, and verification of AI-generated code.
View Coursera2025
Free
Hatch AI Bootcamp
Completed. Practiced AI-assisted documentation, reporting workflows, data privacy, and prompts for handling larger datasets.
View Hatch Academy2026
SkillsFuture Credits
AIxTech Programme
Completed. Explored agentic development, coordinated AI assistants, multi-file planning, debugging, and AI-supported software workflows.
View AIxTechFree
OpenAI Build Week
Completed. Built DispatchAI, my first hackathon project: an AI operations agent that turns conversational booking requests into structured drafts for human review.
View OpenAIFree
AI Dev Tools Zoomcamp
Partially explored. I did not complete the course, but attended selected online workshops and read its articles. Those sessions helped me understand modern coding assistants, agents, and developer workflows.
View ZoomcampMy current tool stack
Free
Google Gemini
Personal projects, blogging, research, and everyday AI assistance.
SGD $0Unsubscribed
GitHub Copilot
Previously used for inline coding assistance, completions, and coding agents inside my editor.
Unsubscribed
ChatGPT Power
Previously used for architecture planning, debugging, technical writing, and AI workflow exploration.
Unsubscribed
Anthropic Claude
Previously used for deep reasoning, large-context coding, code review, and technical analysis.
Plus
OpenAI Codex
AI-assisted development, debugging, documentation, refactoring, testing, and project work through my current OpenAI Plus plan.
SGD $30 / monthWhat I am learning
Lately, I’ve gone completely hands-free with my coding—letting AI handle all the implementation details while I act purely as the director. Instead of writing syntax, my day-to-day is all about feeding the right context, setting up rigorous tests, and verifying that the output actually solves the problem.
The tech stack will always shift. The real superpower now is knowing how to guide AI with solid engineering principles to build great things.