Eye on A.I. · Tuesday, September 8, 2026
Alexander Whedon of Subquadratic estimates that current AI coding agents spend approximately 86% of their time reading and understanding code, rather than actively generating or solving problems. He notes this indicates a significant focus on comprehension and context assimilation within AI development for coding tasks.
“Okay, so I want to start with a provocative claim, which is that 86% of what coding agents do is just reading. So, like, 86% of the time is spent on reading and only 14% of the time is spent on generating. So, if you have a coding agent, its primary job is reading. Its primary job is to read and understand code and not to solve problems.”