Opinion on AI

Hey! I just want to share my personal opinion on AI, vibe coding, and its effect on software engineers. A friend from a UK company asked me:

I don’t know in which direction it’s going (the AI). But overall what do you think about the software industry moving forward?

First, I wasn’t sure whether he was asking about the “industry” or “software engineers.” And honestly, I don’t think AI would hurt the “industry” — as a matter of fact, it’s actually empowering it.

The Rage Between Software Engineers and Vibe Coders

I’ve seen a lot of posts on social media where people from both worlds rage against each other. From a vibe coder:

The market don’t give a damn about your opinion (software engineers)

And from a software engineer:

In reality, later on many people will end up coming back to developers to solve their problems. Right now, he’s at the peak of stupidity, the initial phase of the Dunning-Kruger effect.

Well, not just these — you’ll find more in the coming months. Here’s the thing though: humans work with other humans. Each person has their own expertise and, most importantly, humans have connections and emotions. At the end of the day, business still relies heavily on human emotion and connection. I don’t think AI will ever fully replace that.

That’s why AI isn’t killing your job options. It’s expanding them. Listings for software engineer jobs on Indeed are up 11% annually — a faster clip than postings overall, according to analysis by Citadel Securities.

For vibe coders — you’ll reach a point where you need others (software engineers) for help. The chances of being successful alone are pretty much 0%. And with AI-oversaturated ideas flooding social media, most of them will end up being useless anyway.

Is AI to Blame?

You’d probably think I’m going against AI. I have a different theory on this. Let’s talk about my company. Our chairman embraces AI, but we’re still adding more engineers. If AI could replace engineers, why the hell would we need to hire more?

Vibe coders mostly lack fundamental understanding.

Almost everyone knows how to cook, but not everyone becomes a chef. Almost everyone can do math, but not everyone becomes a mathematician. Almost every driver knows how to change a tire, but not everyone is a mechanic. Now, some people can use AI to develop apps, but not everyone can fully leverage it. AI is a copilot, not the captain.

Another theory I have: as a vibe coder, you can build and deploy a product to the market. You can build a business around it too. But doing this alone? Nah. You’re missing the most important part — emotions.

Software engineers have their own set of emotions, founders have theirs. Together, a product actually solves two different sets of problems for their customers. That combination? That’s what makes an amazing product.

Let’s compare how a product owner uses AI versus how a software engineer does. The beginning of the prompt will be absolutely, totally different — hence the output will also be different. See that? Why? Because human brains work differently when you have different fundamentals. But combine them, and you get a much better product. Again, this is where emotions and connections fit in.

How Does a Software Engineer Work With AI?

At least for me, the first step is to blend myself into the problem — try to understand it using my brain. It’s rare to see a good software engineer just prompt “Fix X error! Make no mistake!” Most of the time, I have something to question back to the AI.

Why is detachWidget required in the way it is? Why can’t we just unparent? Please also add comments to the code itself explaining this.

We also do manual cleanup and then ask follow-up questions:

I did some manual cleanups, do you see any further issues related to the changes?

From what I’ve seen of how vibe coders work — they mostly put the code in a basket, close the basket, and never look at it again.

An Incident I Solved With AI — But With Fundamentals

Recently there was an incident in a product I manage. Users couldn’t purchase a virtual item. This involved multiple services, and I happened to pull all of them (multiple languages) onto my local machine. I immediately navigated to the most downstream service that introduced the error and started understanding it.

From there, I quickly narrowed the context. I was able to find the actual culprit by asking AI to investigate for me — using multiple fundamental software engineering terminologies to guide the conversation.

If I were a vibe coder (putting the code in the basket with closed eyes), I would never have managed to find the culprit of this incident.

My Take

Both sides need to calm down.

Vibe coders are too egotistical — building something with AI doesn’t make you a software engineer. You shipped a product, cool. But when it breaks at 3am on a Saturday, when there’s a security vulnerability buried three layers deep, when your “AI-generated microservice” can’t handle real traffic — who are you going to call? You’ll come running to the people you mocked on Twitter.

Software engineers whose egos are hurt — I get it. You spent years mastering your craft, and now someone with zero fundamentals ships a landing page in 20 minutes and calls themselves a developer. It stings. But here’s the reality: the market doesn’t care about your feelings. Adapt or get left behind. The engineers who thrive will be the ones who use AI as a force multiplier, not the ones who refuse to touch it out of pride.

The truth is somewhere in the middle. AI is a tool. A very powerful one. But a tool without fundamentals is like a sports car without a driver who understands the road. You might go fast for a while, but eventually you’ll crash.

My advice? If you’re a software engineer — embrace AI, use it aggressively, but never stop understanding the “why” behind the code. If you’re a vibe coder — respect the craft, learn the fundamentals, and stop pretending prompt engineering is the same as software engineering.

At the end of the day, the best products will come from people who combine deep technical understanding with AI capabilities. Not from one side alone.

Stop fighting. Start building — together.