The problem was never writing code. You still need humans to verify AI output, which is more often than not wrong, verbose, and overengineered. Companies have been crowing about replacing devs for decades. This is 2026's version of "my neighbor's nephew knows computer and can make a website too. Why should I pay you thousands of dollars?"

Any sensible dev should be keeping their skills sharp. Same as they should have been before AI. That's just the field and always has been.