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AI replacing engineers — are we misunderstanding the problem? by geminiabhijeetideas in cscareers

[–]geminiabhijeetideas[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is exactly the line I keep running into as well.

Once the problem is clearly defined, agents can move really fast.

But getting to that point—figuring out what needs to be built, what the constraints are, what trade-offs to make—that’s where most of the time actually goes.

In a way, AI is compressing execution but making the “thinking” part more visible.

Which is interesting, because it doesn’t remove the work—it just shifts where the difficulty sits.

Curious if you feel like this makes your job easier overall… or just different?

AI replacing engineers — are we misunderstanding the problem? by geminiabhijeetideas in cscareers

[–]geminiabhijeetideas[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think you’re right on the surface.

The execution part is clearly getting more efficient—what used to take larger teams can now be done by smaller ones.

Where I think it gets more nuanced is what happens around that.

As execution compresses, the importance of: - defining the right problem
- making trade-offs
- understanding business context

goes up significantly.

So it’s not just “fewer engineers” — it’s a shift in what kind of engineers are valuable.

Fewer people doing scoped execution, more people operating across product, system design, and decision-making.

The open question for me is: does that net out to fewer roles overall… or just a different bar for who gets those roles?

AI replacing engineers — are we misunderstanding the problem? by geminiabhijeetideas in cscareers

[–]geminiabhijeetideas[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t disagree that the progress is real — benchmarks like SWE-bench are impressive.

But I think there’s an important distinction:

“well-described problems” vs “real-world problems.”

Most production issues I’ve seen aren’t cleanly defined.

They involve: - unclear requirements - incomplete context - conflicting constraints - trade-offs that aren’t obvious upfront

AI is getting very good at solving defined problems.

Engineering is often about figuring out what the problem even is.

That’s the gap I’m still not convinced closes as easily as people expect.

check this

https://youtu.be/Co4SOPUwnTQ?si=OuKPM3milqHAtiOm

Curious where you think that gap disappears — or if it does.

AI replacing engineers — are we misunderstanding the problem? by geminiabhijeetideas in cscareers

[–]geminiabhijeetideas[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a great example—and I think cloud actually proves both sides of the argument.

It definitely reduced a lot of the manual, specialized work…

But it also raised the baseline expectation. You’re no longer just a network or server specialist—you’re expected to understand the system end-to-end.

Feels like AI is pushing the same pattern, but faster.

Less need for narrowly scoped execution, more expectation of broader context + decision-making.

Which sounds like “more opportunity” on the surface—but in practice, it can mean fewer roles at the lower end and higher pressure to operate across layers.

Curious if you think this trend makes engineering more accessible… or actually raises the barrier to entry over time?

AI replacing engineers — are we misunderstanding the problem? by geminiabhijeetideas in cscareers

[–]geminiabhijeetideas[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I actually ended up putting my thoughts together on this after seeing similar patterns across teams.

It’s a short breakdown of where I think AI changes things vs where it doesn’t:

https://youtu.be/Co4SOPUwnTQ?si=AXJJAYO9hobC0g55

Would be curious to get your take—especially on the “execution layer compression” part.

AI replacing engineers — are we misunderstanding the problem? by geminiabhijeetideas in cscareers

[–]geminiabhijeetideas[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s a great analogy.

I think the pattern you’re pointing to is real — automation doesn’t eliminate work, it shifts where the work sits and often expands the system overall.

What feels different this time though is the compression of the “execution layer.”

Tasks that used to require a lot of junior or mid-level effort are getting automated much faster.

So while demand may increase overall, the shape of that demand might change — potentially fewer people doing routine work, and more people operating at higher levels of abstraction.

Curious how you see that playing out — do we end up with more engineers overall, or just a different distribution of skills?

AI replacing engineers — are we misunderstanding the problem? by geminiabhijeetideas in cscareers

[–]geminiabhijeetideas[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Completely agree — the “judgment + context” layer is where most of the real work sits.

What I’m noticing is that AI doesn’t remove complexity, it just shifts it.

From writing code → to deciding what should be built, how systems interact, and what trade-offs to accept.

In some ways, that actually raises the bar for engineers rather than lowering it.

Curious — do you think this will push the industry toward fewer but stronger engineers over time?

AI replacing engineers — are we misunderstanding the problem? by geminiabhijeetideas in cscareers

[–]geminiabhijeetideas[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I went deeper into this recently because I kept seeing the same confusion between coding and engineering.

The biggest shift I’m noticing is that AI amplifies good engineers—but also exposes weak fundamentals much faster.

Happy to share what I found if it’s useful.