Why AI Can’t Replace Engineering Teams

This article is crossposted from IEEE Spectrum’s careers newsletter. Sign up now to get insider tips, expert advice, and practical strategies, written in partnership with tech career development company Parsity and delivered to your inbox for free!If you’re an engineer, you may feel like your skills aren’t commanding the premium they once did. Many engineers have faced layoffs or restructuring. But even for those of us who still have jobs, something corrosive is happening. You may have heard some version of this:“ChatGPT answered that in five seconds. Why can’t you?”Or, “I made this app in a weekend. Why is our team taking so long?”I worked on a team where leadership said things like this directly to engineers. This was in 2024 and 2025, when the AI craze was in full swing and Claude and ChatGPT adoption was rising.Demo-Driven DevelopmentGenerative AI (and the marketing behind it) gives people the illusion that the work is simpler than it is. A working demo hides compl