For a long time, engineering careers were built around execution.
Write cleaner code. Learn another framework. Ship faster.
That made sense when execution was scarce.
But something has shifted.
Execution is getting cheaper. Judgment isn't.
Today, a small team can build what once required dozens of engineers. Not because the work vanished — but because the cost of doing dropped.
What didn't drop is the cost of deciding:
- what is worth building
- what can fail safely
- what tradeoff is acceptable
- where quality actually matters
Where the anxiety comes from
This is where a lot of quiet anxiety comes from.
Much of what we called "core engineering" was really structured execution: working inside boundaries, implementing known patterns, translating requirements.
AI is very good at that.
What replaces it isn't less work — it's denser responsibility. Fewer people touching more of the system. Fewer layers between a decision and its consequence.
That's uncomfortable. Not everyone wants that version of the job. And that's okay.
But it does mean the role is changing.
What's actually happening
Let's strip this down.
When people say "Small, highly leveraged teams will replace headcount" — what they're really saying is:
1. Execution is no longer the bottleneck
AI has made writing code, wiring systems, and scaffolding features cheap and fast.
So execution stopped being a strong signal of value.
2. Many engineering roles were execution-heavy by design
A lot of "core engineering" in the last decade was:
- translating requirements
- implementing predefined flows
- working inside narrow scopes
- shipping incrementally under process
This worked because scale required people, coordination required layers, and mistakes were diffused.
AI breaks that model.
3. Responsibility is collapsing inward
In smaller teams:
- fewer people touch more surface area
- decisions have sharper consequences
- there's less room to hide behind roles
The real shift is not fewer engineers. It's more responsibility per engineer.
4. That's what people are anxious about
Engineers aren't afraid of AI writing code.
They're afraid that:
- their role was narrower than they thought
- their value was tied to execution volume
- the safety net of process is thinning
That fear is rational.
5. "Core engineering" is being redefined, not removed
The center of gravity is moving from:
doing things right
to:
deciding what the right thing is
That requires judgment. Judgment is unevenly distributed. And it's harder to fake.
That's the real tension.
What this means for you
Engineering isn't disappearing.
But the era where you could stay valuable by executing without owning decisions — that probably is.
What comes next will reward fewer engineers — but those who can think clearly, decide well, and take responsibility will matter more, not less.
This is exactly what we teach at Sodiarc. Not just coding — but thinking like a product engineer. Join our free working sessions to see if it's right for you.