When Embarcadero announced the release of Delphi 12.2 with its much-hyped AI integration, many of us were hopeful. After all, they boasted integration with some of the top third-party AI providers, including OpenAI itself. These are powerful AI systems that have the potential to revolutionize how we code. But here’s the problem: the AI itself is not the issue. The AIs being used are top-tier, but the implementation in Delphi 12.2? It’s trash.
Short Timeouts: A Death Sentence for Productivity
Let’s get one thing straight: when you’re dealing with powerful AI tools, the worst thing you can do is rush them. And that’s exactly what Delphi 12.2 does. The integration comes with infuriatingly short timeouts that kill productivity at the source. Imagine calling on OpenAI for some much-needed code optimization or insight, only for the connection to time out before you get anything useful. This problem isn’t the fault of the AI—it’s the implementation’s inability to allow the service to do its job.
These timeouts make the whole feature feel like a gimmick. By the time you’ve waited for the request to fail, you could’ve just gone directly to the OpenAI website and gotten a meaningful, thoughtful response without the extra hassle. The power of AI is real, but Delphi 12.2’s haphazard integration doesn’t let you access it.
Weak Service Integration: Good AIs, Poor Usability
The AI tools that Delphi 12.2 integrates with are, on their own, incredible. OpenAI is a prime example. In the right environment, it can provide in-depth code suggestions, optimizations, and even help debug complex problems. But when you’re using Delphi 12.2, that power is effectively neutered by poor integration.
Instead of giving you the seamless experience that should come with using world-class AI, you get disjointed, broken responses that often just add unnecessary clutter to your code. In theory, this feature should assist with coding—suggesting improvements, helping with debugging, or even writing sections of code for you. In practice, all it seems to do is spit out random comments that break your concentration more than they help your workflow.
The comments Delphi generates with AI tools like OpenAI aren’t insightful, actionable suggestions; they’re basic, low-value annotations. It’s as if the integration was designed to provide something—anything—just to say it’s doing something, even when it’s not helpful. A feature designed for marketing, not developers.
A Rigid and Annoying User Experience
Beyond the weak responses and short timeouts, the experience is rigid to the point of frustration. Instead of leveraging the flexibility and adaptability that comes with modern AI, Delphi 12.2 locks you into a narrow set of interactions that don’t reflect the real power of the services it integrates with. Customization? Forget it. Fine-tuning to match your specific coding style? Not happening. You’re forced to work within a narrow framework that feels like it was designed by someone who has never actually worked with AI in a meaningful way.
The result? You’re stuck with a rigid, unusable tool that barely scratches the surface of what OpenAI and other AI services are capable of. It doesn’t support the kind of deep, iterative interaction that you expect from a modern development environment. It’s like buying a Ferrari and then discovering that the key only works half the time and the steering wheel doesn’t actually turn.
A Marketing Bullet Point, Not a Developer Tool
It’s clear that this AI integration wasn’t built to help developers—it was built to sell Delphi 12.2. By slapping “AI integration” on the product, Embarcadero can claim they’re keeping up with the times. But the reality is, this is nothing more than a poorly implemented feature that barely qualifies as functional.
Let’s be honest: it’s easier, faster, and far more effective to just open a browser, head to the OpenAI website, and type in your questions directly. There, you get quick, meaningful responses without the short timeouts, rigid interactions, and pointless comments that Delphi 12.2 adds. You don’t need Delphi to act as an inefficient middleman between you and powerful AI tools.
A Pattern of Half-Baked Features
Delphi 12.2’s AI integration is just the latest in a long line of poorly thought-out features from Embarcadero. This isn’t the first time they’ve tacked on half-implemented ideas to try and keep up with the competition. For years now, it feels like each new version of Delphi arrives with another gimmick that’s more about getting cash out of their few remaining customers than actually improving the product.
In Delphi 12.2’s case, the AI integration feels more like a beta feature rushed to market. It’s not that the AI itself is weak—it’s that Delphi’s ability to use it effectively is broken. And while Embarcadero may think they can get away with these kinds of half-baked features, the reality is that developers see right through it.
Conclusion: AI Isn’t the Problem—Delphi’s Implementation Is
Delphi 12.2 could have been a game-changer, giving developers seamless access to powerful AI services like OpenAI right from their IDE. But instead, it’s a broken bridge to those tools, hindered by short timeouts, weak service integration, and a rigid, frustrating experience. The AIs that Delphi integrates with are top-tier; Delphi’s ability to use them, however, is embarrassingly poor.
If you’re looking to leverage the real power of AI, skip the mess that Delphi 12.2 offers and go straight to the source. OpenAI and similar services are fantastic tools—when they aren’t bogged down by bad implementation. Save yourself the time and frustration and avoid this “feature” in Delphi 12.2 until Embarcadero decides to actually finish what they started.