This year has been a contentious one for software engineering. Companies are adapting to an AI-driven environment, some out of necessity, others out of desire. For engineers, this means embracing change and adapting to new tools and workflows. The hard part comes with admitting that the output is more valuable than the time taken to craft code. The product is now the core value, not the code. None of that means coding skill matters less, though. If anything, the better you are at it, the faster and better you can steer AI-assisted coding towards something actually worth shipping.
It took some time to arrive at this conclusion, but it’s incredibly clear that it is our current reality. What I could build in weeks, I can now do in days, without necessarily leaving my coding preferences and practices entirely behind. So if I can provide value quicker, I will. This transition of thought is moving from a selfish view, where the act of coding is a sacred act of fulfillment and enjoyment, to a selfless one, where the act of coding is all about the output quality and time taken to produce it.
Still, it is up to us engineers to practice and improve our domain knowledge and coding skills. The best way to balance this is to know when to turn off the AI assistance and go manual. I really do believe programming is a muscle that should be flexed, which means we should all take the time to continue doing tasks where we can, completely on our own without relying on any AI assistance. You’ll be better for it.
That’s what it means to be an engineer in 2026, not just a coder, not just a prompter, but an adaptable and selfless engineer that can help take entire teams and businesses more quickly into the future they’ve always wanted.