AI Didn’t Replace Engineers. It Rewired What Engineering Was
Article summary
We kept getting the question: “Will AI replace engineers?” By mid-2022, it already had-just not the way people thought. It didn’t remove engineers. It reshaped what counted as engineering. And if you weren’t watching carefully, you might’ve missed the most important architectural shift in years. The line between tools and teammates began to blur. Code suggestions stopped being static. They became responsive. Design input wasn’t a whiteboard session-it was a back-and-forth with a model. Test generation, log summarization, documentation, onboarding guides-all increasingly driven by AI scaffolding. But these weren’t autonomous agents. They were tools that responded like collaborators. And that meant engineers didn’t disappear. They became curators, orchestrators, reviewers. The craft didn’t vanish. It shifted from authoring everything to shaping intent.
Read Full Article on MediumPractical takeaway
The main idea behind AI Didn’t Replace Engineers. It Rewired What Engineering Was is to help teams move from broad theory to clear, repeatable decision making. When teams apply this thinking, they reduce ambiguity and focus on improvements that deliver measurable momentum.
Example scenario
Imagine a team facing competing priorities. By applying the ideas in AI Didn’t Replace Engineers. It Rewired What Engineering Was, they can map dependencies, identify risks and choose the next move that produces progress without destabilizing their system.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Trying to redesign everything instead of taking small steps.
- Ignoring real constraints like incentives, ownership or legacy systems.
- Creating documents that do not lead to any change in code or decisions.
How to apply this in real work
Start by identifying where AI Didn’t Replace Engineers. It Rewired What Engineering Was already shows up in your architecture or delivery flow. Then pick one area where clarity would reduce friction. Apply the idea, measure its effect and share the learning.
Signs you are doing it correctly
- Teams make decisions faster and with fewer disagreements.
- Architectural conversations become clearer and less abstract.
- Changes land safely with fewer surprises or rework cycles.