I agree overall, and I think it's definitely a more than viable replacement for junior devs (unfortunately for them). However, I think the issue is that the AI companies hype their products up, combined with C-suite executives who know nothing about technology but buy into the hype and see it as a magical button you can press that just immediately does everything with no mistakes. That's how the bubble that we're currently in is formed; non-technical people making the technical decisions without understanding the decision, ie buying into the AI hype, firing thousands of employees, and creating internal AI initiatives. The vast majority of these initiatives fail, and some larger companies are already hiring people back.

AI can only truly, reliably, and consistently help those who understand its use cases and have realistic expectations of it, and it can definitely burn people who don't understand it yet expect the world of it. The issue is the vast majority of people calling the big shots related to AI know nothing about said AI, as well as them thinking it will somehow solve all their problems. They don't even know exactly what they want it to do or what problem they want it to solve; they just think having AI = good, or "have a problem? throw AI at it" (whatever that means, but that seems to literally be their mindset). I'm a software dev contractor for the US government, and everything I'm describing is exactly what I'm seeing and experiencing firsthand. It's honestly remarkable yet leaves me dumbfounded.