You nailed it. Unfortunately, this is the reality in Corporate America today. Senior Leadership doesn't understand what software engineering actually is. They see AI tools and think "Great, now anyone can code!" So they're applying factory-worker logic to engineering work , figuring they can swap in "AI" and get the same quality output. Completely misses what the job actually requires.
The company I am leaving is going all-in on hiring Indians to prompt AIs. The CTO - who was a developer - talks about “generating applications” rather than writing software. In response to a concern that developers will not retain understanding of generated code they reviewed as well as code they had personally written, he affirmed that AI tools will be able to understand and summarize the implementations.
It all sounds like COBOL on steroids. The AI will be better, of course, which means the companies might only dig themselves into even deeper technical holes. I suspect there will be a boon for real engineers down the road. When these generated systems start failing, they will be beyond rescue. Likely there will be a lot of greenfield opportunities in a few years. I certainly wouldn’t get involved trying to resuscitate AI slop for anything less than a small fortune.
LOL never heard code described as AI slop... only writing. You might be onto something there, but I'm sure engineers will be using AI to translate the slop as well.
Just pure fear when this type of stuff happens and sadly a reality in so many workplaces.
Brings a lot of emphasize on building something on Substack.
Agreed, gotta diversify those income streams.
You nailed it. Unfortunately, this is the reality in Corporate America today. Senior Leadership doesn't understand what software engineering actually is. They see AI tools and think "Great, now anyone can code!" So they're applying factory-worker logic to engineering work , figuring they can swap in "AI" and get the same quality output. Completely misses what the job actually requires.
The AI has to be steered by experienced engineers. Also the AI code has to be reviewed and validated.
The company I am leaving is going all-in on hiring Indians to prompt AIs. The CTO - who was a developer - talks about “generating applications” rather than writing software. In response to a concern that developers will not retain understanding of generated code they reviewed as well as code they had personally written, he affirmed that AI tools will be able to understand and summarize the implementations.
It all sounds like COBOL on steroids. The AI will be better, of course, which means the companies might only dig themselves into even deeper technical holes. I suspect there will be a boon for real engineers down the road. When these generated systems start failing, they will be beyond rescue. Likely there will be a lot of greenfield opportunities in a few years. I certainly wouldn’t get involved trying to resuscitate AI slop for anything less than a small fortune.
LOL never heard code described as AI slop... only writing. You might be onto something there, but I'm sure engineers will be using AI to translate the slop as well.
Thank you sir! Exactly what I was going for.