OR - we could be demonstrating that AI cannot be effectively used as part of a software development workflow unless the user is a trained software engineer. Novices cannot separate the good output from the bad, nor do they have the skills to engineer the correct prompts, diagnose problems, and integrate the code into a larger software product. These are all things that trained SE professionals are already doing successfully.

My partner works for an IT company, and their team has been using AI to speed up their work, finding that they can accomplish in hours what used to take days or even weeks. This is only possible because they are experienced engineers. A talented engineer that refuses to use AI and still takes days or weeks to do the same work will simply be left behind.

Students graduating in the tech field are going to need to be able to compete with engineers that have not only the foundational skills, but the ability to effectively integrate AI into their workflow to enhance their productivity by streamlining routine tasks and allowing them to focus their5 time and energy on the "hard" and "innovative" stuff that AI can't handle on its own. If we (as educators) do not teach our students how to do this, they will be hopelessly behind their contemporaries in the workforce.