Chengchang Yu
Published on

📝 How to stay a needed software engineer in the age of AI

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Here’s a thought-leadership style LinkedIn post based on that job description, adapted into clear, natural English and framed around the theme of how to stay valuable as a software engineer in the AI era:

How to stay a needed software engineer in the age of AI

We don’t lack AI that can generate code. We lack engineers who can build systems that can survive that code.

In today’s AI-accelerated development world, one truth is becoming clearer:

Code is cheap. Structure is expensive. Architecture first. Then AI-native.

AI has dramatically lowered the barrier to writing code. But at the same time, it has exponentially increased the cost of maintaining it: Bad assumptions, inconsistent logic, hidden leaks, fragile flows—AI can generate all of them at scale.

So the role of senior engineers is shifting:

  • Architecture before prompts
  • Schemas before code
  • Review over raw output
  • Systems over features
  • Know when to use AI and when not to

AI doesn’t replace engineers. It raises the bar for what an engineer must be.