AI Can't Solve It All: Here's What 120+ Frontend Developers Say They Still Hate Working On

Informal whiteboard survey of ~120 frontend developers across JSNation and React Summit 2026, asking what they hate building and what AI still gets wrong in React.

Day 1 asked about the most annoying frontend tasks or components to build. Date pickers topped the list (9 mentions), followed by AI-related work itself, accessibility compliance, data grids, rich text editors, design systems, and comboboxes. The split between named components and process-level tasks was roughly even.

Day 2 focused on AI-generated React code specifically. Top complaints: React architecture mistakes (6 mentions), poor CSS/styling, effects and async logic, and animation. Developers reported AI tools violating rules of hooks, creating unnecessary state, placing state outside components, generating new components instead of reusing existing ones, and producing code without understanding project context.

Cross-cutting pain points across both days included accessibility, design systems, Figma-to-code workflows, localization, testing, state management, performance, and CSS. The author notes these are not new problems — many stem from human coordination challenges rather than pure technical difficulty.

The core argument: integration into cohesive systems remains the hard part, not individual tools. AI shifts developer effort toward reviewing and refining generated code rather than writing every line, but hasn't eliminated the need for thoughtful engineering. The piece doubles as thought leadership for Progress Telerik/Kendo UI's component libraries, positioning them as a solution for the exact pain points surfaced.