The hardest part of using AI isn't the technology — it's your own brain.
I watched a well-known engineer talk about feeling "lost" now that AI writes his code. Disconnected. Like he couldn't feel pride in the output anymore.
I get that feeling. I've felt it too. But I don't dwell on it. Here's why.
I'm not just a programmer. I never was. For 30 years, my job has been making sure the business gets the data it needs to make profitable decisions. The code was always the vehicle, not the destination.
AI has the same problem we saw with offshore outsourcing a decade ago: teams that magically churn out code overnight, but it doesn't work — because they didn't understand the business well enough to avoid the pitfalls. They wrote what was asked for, not what was needed.
Sound familiar? That's AI without business context.
The need isn't for elite coders anymore. It's for people who understand what the business is actually trying to accomplish and can guide AI to deliver that — correctly, completely, the first time.
I've watched important projects take two years and consume massive budgets, then get cut before they delivered value. Now we can do that work in weeks. Not because the code is faster — because the right person is directing AI toward the right outcome instead of spending months on scaffolding.
If you feel "lost" because AI writes your code now, ask yourself: were you delivering business value, or were you delivering code?
Those aren't the same thing.
The programmers who thrive now aren't the fastest typists or the most clever architects. They're the ones who know what "right" looks like for the business — and can validate AI's output against that standard in seconds.
Domain expertise. Business judgment. Knowing why something matters, not just how it runs.
That's not loss. That's leverage.