AI Won’t Replace Engineers—But could replace leaders

(NOTE: This was written by ChatGPT)

In the last few weeks, I heard detailed stories of how engineers spun up a site, or a tool, in no time or effort using tools like Copilot, Cursor, and LangGraph.. What used to take a day or two of setup, scaffolding, and hand-rolled edge case handling? Done in an hour. I wasn’t surprised. This is the new normal.

And I love it.

But it got me thinking—not about the end of software engineer(ing) (that story’s already been oversold), but about the role of the engineering lead who loves to tinker, who loves to hack things nights and weekends.

Because let’s be real—generative AI is amazing at building MVPs, automating tedious boilerplate, debugging obscure issues, and even spinning up design patterns we once considered “architectural decisions.” It’s like pair programming with someone who read every GitHub repo and Stack Overflow answer—ever.

If you’re an IC, it’s the best assistant you’ve ever had.

If you’re a tech lead who thrives by jumping in, prototyping, and solving problems solo before bringing the team in… AI’s now doing your favorite part of the job.

That’s a shift.

The Rise of the "Non-Coding" Engineering Leader

Engineering leadership was already trending toward more coaching, context-setting, and alignment. Now, AI just pushed that further.

You don’t need a tech lead who can “whip up a quick solution” on the weekend anymore. You need someone who can:

  • Define the right problems

  • Coach teams through ambiguity

  • Build systems that scale (organizational ones, not just backend ones)

  • Protect focus

  • Balance speed with quality

That kind of leadership? AI isn’t touching it. Yet.

But if your value as a lead came from jumping in and coding your way out of problems faster than the rest of the team—AI’s coming for you faster than you think.

So What Now?

This isn’t a eulogy. It’s a mirror.

I love building. I always will. But the edge has moved. AI is better than me at the quick fixes and weekend hacks. So my job is to move up the stack—to be more coach, less debugger. More architects of people and systems, less of code.

The ones who embrace that? They’ll be fine.

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