AI & Software Engineering: Time for optimism

Many software engineers (myself included, not long ago) have been anxious about AI replacing our jobs. It’s a natural concern.

But I’ve been diving deep into using AI for software engineering. I’ve had a realization:

We should stop worrying about job losses. Start seeing AI as a tool to make us more valuable.

The key? Use AI for learning, not just code generation.

Relying solely on AI for code generation is the trap.

The truly valuable skill is judgment¹. The judgment to decide what to build and how to build it². AI excels at the actual building (code generation). Embrace this. It’s inevitable. Most future code will be written|generated with AI.

The good news? AI is amazing for learning.

Some examples

I think back to my undergraduate days. A concept didn’t click? It meant a bike ride to the library. I’d search for textbooks, pull references, and try to piece it all together. Assuming the books were even available. Guess what I often did? I didn’t bother. Today, I’d just pull up my phone and look it up.

The internet was a game-changer for students. AI is the next game-changer for all of us willing to learn.

A more recent example: I’m doing an upcoming Fragmented episode on an article that my friend Colin³ wrote on Coroutine Dispatcher use.

I understood about 75% on the first pass. But a few gaps remained, especially around how they related to Coroutine fundamentals. I needed to brush up.

Without AI, my process would have been:

• Open a bunch of articles and docs.
• Read each one thoroughly.
• Synthesize the information mentally.
• Connect the dots with the article.
• Time: 2-3 hours, plus significant mental bandwidth.

With AI:

• Uploaded Colin’s article and official Kotlin docs to Google’s Notebook LM.
• Asked targeted questions, addressing my knowledge gaps directly.
• Time: 30 minutes to reach a firm understanding.

What would have taken 2-3 hours took about 30 minutes⁴. And I understood the concepts better.

AI is your opportunity to level up. Learn faster. Position yourself to make the critical decisions: “what” and “how” to build. This is where software engineers, especially new ones, should focus. You don’t have the luxury of years of experience that some of us “senior” engineers had. AI lets you catch up, fast.

Yes, the bar will be raised. Getting into the field won’t be as easy. But for those willing to learn and adapt, AI is an incredible advantage. Embrace it.