Earlier, a large part of engineering time was spent translating intent into code.
That translation step is what has shrunk.
AI now converts a clear mental model into working code in minutes.
What did not shrink is the thinking.
Today, most time is spent deciding what should be built and explaining it precisely.
The agent is not slow.
The bottleneck is clarity.
When you use coding agents seriously, you notice a clear shift.
Implementation speed is no longer the constraint. Understanding is.
You spend more time on:
- Defining the problem precisely
- Breaking behavior into explicit rules
- Making tradeoffs visible
- Describing intent instead of syntax
Once this is done, the translation to code is almost instant.
AI did not eliminate engineering effort.
It removed the mechanical step of turning thoughts into syntax.
Poor thinking now fails faster.
Clear thinking now ships faster.
This shift rewards engineers who understand systems, products, and users, not just tools.
The real skill is no longer writing code.
It is forming a precise intent that machines can execute.
AI did not change where value comes from.
It just made that truth impossible to ignore.