AI as a tool, not a replacement

Think of AI as the ultimate power tool in your shed. Does a high-speed electric saw replace a carpenter? Not at all. It just means the carpenter doesn't have to spend three hours manually sawing a plank of wood.

We’ve seen this before. When the calculator was introduced, people thought mathematicians were a dying breed. Instead, it just freed them up to solve much more complex problems. If we truly believe AI will replace us entirely, we’re essentially saying that humans will eventually stop making decisions or wanting to innovate. But AI lacks that spontaneous "aha!" moment that humans have. It can process data, but it can’t replicate the human spark of true, out-of-the-box creativity.

The evolution of the role

Yes, some roles are going to change, and that’s just the nature of progress. Back in the day, you could make a whole career out of just being a "Frontend Engineer." But with AI getting so good at churning out UI components and CSS, the bar is moving.

In the near future, you’ll likely be expected to be a Fullstack Engineer by default. AI can handle the heavy lifting of the frontend, which means you need to understand the whole lifecycle. We’re already seeing specialized roles like DevOps or pure Frontend being absorbed into the general "Engineer" toolkit. This isn't a bad thing; it just means our roles are getting broader and more impactful.

Exposing the "fake" engineers

Here’s the spicy part: AI is actually going to expose people who aren't real problem solvers. Since AI is a tool and not the engineer itself, it requires an engineering mindset to steer it. You can’t just ask AI to "build an app" and expect a masterpiece. You have to monitor it, guide it, and course-correct when it hallucinate or takes a shortcut.

If you don't actually understand the fundamentals of how things work, you won't know when the AI is giving you a brilliant solution or a complete disaster. True engineers will use AI to move faster, while those who rely on it blindly will eventually get stuck when the prompts stop working.

Engineering is more than just code

At the end of the day, engineering isn't just about typing lines of code into a terminal. It’s about the entire journey from identifying a pain point to delivering a solution.

Take backend development. Creating an API isn't just about the endpoint; you have to think about:

• Security protocols
• Scalability for millions of users
• Performance optimization
• Cloud infrastructure

AI can’t juggle all those architectural decisions simultaneously with the same nuance as a human. You involve AI in each step as a collaborator, but you are still the architect holding the blueprint. This is exactly how "code monkeys" will be separated from actual Engineers.

Why we still need juniors

I hear people say, "Why hire a Junior if AI can do Junior-level work?" That’s a dangerous way to think. Every Senior Engineer was a Junior once. If we stop hiring Juniors today, we’ll have no Seniors in ten years.

Beyond that, the world needs new generations of problem solvers. Each generation brings a new perspective to innovation, and being an Engineer is core to that. You have to start somewhere to build the intuition needed to guide the AI later in your career.

Embrace the tech

Let’s be real: AI is awesome. It’s becoming incredibly powerful and it’s growing every single day. Instead of fearing it, we should be leaning into it. It’s a tool that everyone must understand and know how to use.

Don’t stress about AI taking your seat at the table. Just make sure you’re the one behind the wheel. I’d love to hear your take on this, so let’s keep the conversation going!

Summary

Will AI make Junior Engineers obsolete? Not at all. You can't have Seniors without Juniors, and while AI can help with the "grunt work," it can't teach you the intuition and critical thinking you only get by starting from the bottom.

Do I need to become a Fullstack Engineer to survive? The lines are definitely blurring. AI makes it much easier to handle the side of the stack you're less familiar with, so being "just" a frontend or backend dev is becoming a thing of the past.

Is AI going to make coding easier or harder? It makes the typing part easier, but the thinking part stays the same. You'll spend less time on syntax and more time on high-level architecture and making sure your solution actually works for the user.