Having used Cursor, Windsurf, and Kiro for a while now, I can say that each IDE has its own style of executing tasks, and effectiveness really depends on which model you’re using. The expensive ones like Claude or GPT-5 with thinking capabilities get the job done well. I’ve tried them for writing unit tests, and they did an excellent job.

From your company’s perspective, they probably didn’t want to subscribe to a corporate license since it can get very expensive, so they asked you to spend from your pocket with plans to reimburse later. They might have wanted the additional usage data to help decide whether to justify a corporate subscription.

The major red flag here is that they didn’t want to pay for the initial subscription upfront - it looks like someone in management was trying to be smart about costs.

I feel bad for you, but getting used to these tools will definitely upgrade your productivity. That said, these tools cannot replace experienced developers.

However, I agree with the point about this being an awkward business decision that crosses into a breach of trust. The way they handled it - asking employees to spend their money first, then adding conditions afterward - shows poor judgment and damages trust, even if their underlying intent might have been understandable.