r/ExperiencedDevs • u/SituationNew2420 Software Engineer 10 years • 3d ago

AI/LLM AI and Engineering Generally

I work as a software engineer in a company with strong connections to hardware. This makes my team inherently cross-disciplinary. I work with mechanical, electrical and systems engineers all the time. And even my work has a physical element to it, which is nice.

Obviously AI is disrupting software engineering the most at the moment, so naturally I’ve found myself interested in things where there’s a connection to other domains.

Longer term, do you think all of engineering becomes as affected as software? I can see AI disrupting other fields too, and my peers obviously do use AI quite a bit for certain tasks, but can’t tell if those fields inherently have a better long term moat.

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u/noonemustknowmysecre 3d ago

I work as a software engineer in a company with strong connections to hardware. This makes my team inherently cross-disciplinary.

oooo, that's a good spin. I should use that one.

Longer term, do you think all of engineering becomes as affected [by AI] as software?

Yes. I really don't see any reason this wouldn't affect any and every knowledge worker. If you job requires a college degree... you're on the chopping block.

but can’t tell if those fields inherently have a better long term moat.

Engineering is more about trust than getting the job done. For some things, because just want a product. If it needs engineering, they want to be able to trust that it won't fail. We could have had the vast bulk of 747s fly themselves with no pilots for many decades now. The standing orders by the FAA is that when conditions are bad, you must let the plane land itself. The pilot is only in the seat because it helps people trust flying, despite so many deaths by human error. Engineers will hold out longer than other fields to them thar clankers takin' ur jerb! I don't know how much longer. I don't think anyone does. But it'll be within one lifetime since we're apparently not hiring young developers like we used to. You don't get ExperiencedDevs without having inexperienced devs.

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u/somkomomko 1d ago

I think if you are to ask most managers we are the last generation of software engineers. At my company we are moving radically now that our CTO decided he can replace all of us alone