How do you get a whole team to use AI consistently instead of everyone doing their own thing?

Question

Accepted Answer

The goal is to **standardize the workflow, not the thinking**. When everyone uses AI their own way, you get inconsistent styles, uneven quality, and code nobody can maintain together. The fix is shared agreements, not banning the tools.

## What to standardize

- **Agreed tools** — pick a sanctioned set (with proper data agreements) so code isn't routed through random unvetted services.
- **Shared context files** — commit a rules file (e.g. a `CLAUDE.md` / cursor rules) describing your conventions, architecture, and do/don't, so the AI gives everyone consistent output.
- **Shared prompts** — a small library of vetted prompts for common tasks (generate a test, write a migration) so quality doesn't depend on who's typing.
- **Conventions for AI-generated code** — it goes through the same **review** as any code, has **tests**, and (where your org wants it) is **attributed** so reviewers know to look harder.

## How to make it stick

- **Training** — show the team high-leverage patterns and the failure modes (hallucinated APIs, plausible-but-wrong logic), so usage converges on what actually works.
- **A feedback loop** — a channel to share prompts that worked, patterns that burned someone, and updates to the rules file as the codebase evolves.

The principle is consistency at the **output and process** layer. *How* each engineer reasons with the AI is theirs; *what lands in the repo* must meet one shared bar.

## Why it matters

AI multiplies whatever process you already have. With no shared standard, it multiplies divergence — five engineers produce five incompatible styles, reviewers can't keep up, and the codebase fragments faster than humans alone would manage. Shared guidelines, a committed rules file, and the same review/test bar turn AI into a force for consistency instead of entropy. You keep individual productivity while protecting the one thing that makes a team faster than its members: a codebase everyone can read, trust, and maintain together.