How do modern developers actually approach building a project in 2026?

I’m a 3rd-year CS student and I’m getting back into building projects after a long break. One thing I’m struggling with is how projects are actually approached today, especially with AI tools everywhere.

I use AI a lot (Claude, Gemini, Cursor, etc.), but I’m not “vibe coding” blindly I understand the logic, I just don’t always write everything manually. Still, when I recently tried building a simple chatbot, I realized my fundamentals and workflow weren’t where they should be.

I’m curious how more experienced developers approach things today:

• How do you break down a project before writing code?
• Where does AI fit into your workflow (and where doesn’t it)?
• How do you choose tech stacks and databases?
• What editors/tools do you rely on daily?
• How do you keep up with what actually matters in the industry vs noise?

Would really appreciate hearing real workflows rather than tutorial-style advice.