I keep seeing people mentioning how ai-generated code lets you spend more time thinking about what the app should do, but I think there’s a need to remember that there are large groups of engineers whose role hasn’t been redefined to include that level of control and trust.
Many should demonstrate judgment by copy/pasting tickets they have no say about, into prompts that generate code for them, and then approving/denying at a higher rate than before (or while hands off), to meet deadlines also out of their control.
You get accountability but can’t do much about it.
Many workplaces have adopted a discourse of empowerment met by just increasing productivity pressures, and what you get is people being told their skills are still valued while practically being shown they aren’t.
Asking engineers to reimagine their work isn’t something they can do in isolation.