January 29, 2026
Intern or overlord? Engineers clap back
AI's Impact on Engineering Jobs May Be Different Than Expected
Seniors get superpowers, juniors get whiplash — commenters split on whether AI is mentor or chaos gremlin
TLDR: AI is stripping out entry-level busywork in engineering, potentially vaulting new grads into bigger roles while veterans babysit the bots. The comments are split between “it’s just a normal tool upgrade,” “a bigger quake is coming,” and “please stop the hot takes,” making careers and hiring feel up for grabs
AI in engineering isn’t just “robots took my job” — it’s more like “robots took my grunt work.” The article claims entry-level chores are vanishing, meaning new grads trained on the latest tools might leapfrog into bigger roles while seasoned pros keep the ship steady with hard-won judgment. Commenters? On fire. One camp shrugs: “it’s just another abstraction shift” — tools get smarter, people move up. Another camp insists “domain wisdom still rules,” with senior dev Ancalagon comparing AI to an overexcited intern: it’s fast, but you still have to babysit it when it veers off into security or speed blunders.
The big split mirrors the article’s two paths: tune up the old workflow vs. toss it and retool everything. Fans of the retool vibe point at the Industrial Revolution horse-to-car meme and say, “stop polishing the saddle.” But skeptics like XenophileJKO warn: “don’t be fooled by past performance,” hinting a bigger wave is coming. Meanwhile, the snark hits hard: tracerbulletx is over the armchair punditry, roasting every “thought leader” forecasting the future by vibes alone. The mood: seniors gain leverage, juniors shift to tooling and review, and AI is the intern that never sleeps — powerful, useful, and still liable to need a human riding shotgun. Cue the “autopilot on, hands on the wheel” memes and a whole lot of side-eye at confident predictions
Key Points
- •AI is expected to automate repetitive, entry-level tasks in engineering, particularly in chip design.
- •Graduates trained on AI tools may start in more senior roles due to accelerated learning and tooling proficiency.
- •AI is described as a force multiplier that can handle high-dimensional problems but still requires human domain expertise and checks.
- •Two approaches to AI adoption are outlined: enhancing existing workflows versus retooling them entirely.
- •Evolving tools increase abstraction levels, reducing the need for juniors to master lower-level details while still enabling progression to senior roles.