A lead engineer at a major software company said AI tools have cut the number of engineers needed per project but made senior staff more valuable, not less.
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Manoj Aggarwal has been writing code for 14 years, through stints at Microsoft, Twitter, and Stripe. He is now a lead software engineer at a large company, and he says his job has changed more in the last year than in the previous 13 combined.
"My coding time has essentially been reduced to writing prompts for AI tools," Aggarwal said. "In some cases, I've been working at a pace that feels 10 times faster."
That speed comes with a trade-off. Aggarwal said that two years ago a project might have required 10 engineers. Now five may suffice. During a job search last year, he found more openings for senior engineering roles than for junior ones. He expects that gap to widen.
"Junior engineers could be affected the most," he said.
Aggarwal's view is that AI tools have made coding easier without making the engineer's judgment less important. He said AI lacks the high-level picture of what a system should look like or why it is designed a certain way. It also makes mistakes, which means a human must stay in the loop.
"Engineers – not AI – are ultimately accountable for the code that gets shipped," he said.
That accountability, he added, can contribute to burnout. Reviewing AI-generated code is faster in some ways but more targeted in others. The added responsibility piles onto an already demanding role.
Aggarwal spends about $50 to $60 a month on Claude Code. He also uses Microsoft Copilot and Lovable. One side project he built is an open-source tax and financial assistant that runs locally on his computer. He used it to verify his 2025 tax return.
He advises other engineers to experiment with AI tools regardless of how they feel about the technology.
"If you're compared with another engineer who's using it, there's no doubt that the other engineer's productivity will be higher," he said.
For the biggest tech companies, the implications are mixed. Fewer junior hires reduce payroll expenses. But the remaining engineers face higher stakes. Microsoft (MSFT, Alpha Score 61, current price $381.74) has invested heavily in AI tools that automate coding tasks, including its Copilot product. If fewer engineers are needed to ship products, Microsoft's own engineering costs could fall. The quality of code and the pace of innovation, however, depend on retaining the senior talent that AI cannot replace.
Aggarwal said he takes a couple of hours each week outside work to experiment with AI. A toddler at home means he cannot open his laptop while she is awake. The personal projects happen at night after she goes to sleep or on weekends while she naps.
"I get to work on cool projects that wouldn't be possible to create during work hours," he said.
One of those projects is the tax assistant. He built it to run locally because he did not want to upload his personal financial information to AI models over the internet.
Aggarwal said the biggest challenge for engineers is adapting to a job that can change rapidly because of factors outside their control. That was true before the AI boom. It is even more true now.
"I'd suggest leaning into your experience – both your engineering skills and the institutional knowledge you've built," he said.
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