>I think AI tools are more like Iron Man’s suit. It can do incredible things, but not on its own.

Seemingly every AI pilled programmer who writes a blog post on AI's impact on software engineering has the same philosophical argument, and it's wording changes slightly every 6-12 months to reflect the newest models capabilities.

In 2023 it was: "AI is just autocomplete. It can't code whole blocks on it's own."

In 2024 it was: "AI is only good for scaffolding new projects, or boiler plate code. It can't write the application whole sale."

Since November 2025 it's been: "AI is only writing the code for us. It can't manage architecture, or do the long term planning required for real world applications."

In 6-12 months when the AI is doing an increasing amount of the architecture and high level planning, what will AI pilled programmers fall back on then?