Where the hell are we now with AI in software engineering?

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝗜 𝗶𝗻 𝘀𝗼𝗳𝘁𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴? 🤔

Genuine question. I'd love your input on this.

The last couple of years have been... interesting.

I went from trying to convince engineers that AI could write anything more useful than boilerplate, to trying to stop engineers blindly accepting everything AI writes and taking no ownership for it.

Back when, getting people to even try AI to generate code felt painful. The common response was usually some variation of:

"It's just autocomplete." "It's only good for boilerplate." "It can't write real code."

Fast forward to today and I'm seeing a different problem.

Some engineers have gone from "AI can't code" to "AI can code everything, so why should I think?"

😵‍💫 It's downright crazy.

I've stopped trying to convince people. If someone wants to ignore AI completely, that's their choice. If someone wants to outsource all of their thinking to AI, that's their choice too. The best engineers are quietly learning by experience and advancing their carear.

Instead, I've focused on proving what actually works in the real world with an experienced architect at the helm that knows what good looks like.

Many of the conversations I'm seeing now are finally catching up to what many of us have been saying for a long time.

AI can be incredibly powerful.

But you still need engineers.

You need 𝗷𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁. You need 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆. You need 𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽.

My network is full of people who've actually used AI in anger, built things with it, succeeded with it, failed with it, and formed opinions based on real experience rather than headlines and hype.

I'd like to hear what you're seeing.

❓ Where are the majority of engineers landing now?

❓ Are many still resisting AI?

❓ Are they embracing it in sensible ways?

❓ Or are you seeing the same shift I'm seeing, from "AI can't code" to "AI can code everything"?

❓ What's the reality in your teams and organisations today?