From code writers to problem solvers

There’s a divide among developers right now. Some embrace AI code generation as a powerful tool. Others worry it threatens their relevance, fearing they’ll become obsolete if machines can write code.

The best developers I’ve worked with have been those who understood messy, complex business problems and figured out how to break them down into logical, implementable pieces. The code was just the way we communicated this process to the computer.

We’ve seen this pattern before. As people mastered each layer of abstraction, it enabled others to work at higher levels. AI code generation is just the next step in that evolution.

Yet AI makes domain expertise more valuable, not less. The developers getting the best results aren’t beginners trying to skip the learning curve. They’re experienced engineers who can quickly spot when AI generates something that looks right but will cause performance issues at scale.

Perhaps those who struggle with AI identify as “code writers” rather than “problem solvers”? As long as we position ourselves as just the people who translate requirements into code, we’ll get typecast out of the conversations about what should be built and why.