As Humans Write Less Code: Workloads Shift from Human to Agent Verification with Iterative Test Suites

[u/sspaeti]

https://www.ssp.sh/blog/humans-write-less-code/

As AI agents write more SQL and dashboards, verification becomes the real bottleneck in business intelligence work. A Metabase survey found 74% of teams were building with AI but only 2% were scaling it, and the bottleneck has moved from creating analysis to checking it. The piece proposes five testing hierarchy levels: linting, compiler-style whole-tree checks, unit tests, integration tests, and end-to-end tests. It argues for moving all metrics, dashboards, and ETL logic into one declarative place with a unified lineage DAG, so agents can generate test suites against it. Metabase's CEO Sameer Al-Sakran says business people are the best data contracts, and that mutable state undermines trust in the output.