AI Engineer vs Augmented Engineer: What’s The Difference and Why it Matters for Software Engineers
AI is more than a new field to specialize in, it’s reshaping what a software engineer career will look like.
The skills needed are shifting. AI is democratizing technical ability and making coding less of a differentiator. Writing the code is not going to be a skill we need to lean on.
Becoming an Augmented Engineer is how we evolve to adapt and thrive with AI.
What is an Augmented Engineer
It’s a mindset for all software engineers.
It’s how we adapt to AI doing more coding.
It’s a philosophy that says, let’s have AI do what it’s good at while we focus on our human-centric strengths.
What is an AI Engineer
This is a specialization.
It’s a new field that focuses on developing and training AI models. If this interests you, awesome! It’s an exciting new field that’s growing. But you don’t need to become an AI Engineer, unless you want to.
Every software engineer MUST evolve into an Augmented Engineer.
This is how we keep our jobs when AI replaces 95% of the code writing we do.
The Augmented Engineer Philosophy
This is the evolution of what the role software engineer will look like.
To become an Augmented Engineer, you take two key steps:
- Invest in your human-centric strengths (ie. thinking, soft skills).
- Learn to use AI for what it’s good at.
The differentiating skill for engineers has been our technical abilities. This gap over other engineers and AI is diminishing. Our value to employers will no longer come from our ability to code.
We need to be creative thinkers and strong communicators.
We need to invest in our ability to solve problems and lead.
We need to leverage our human strengths and let AI do the implementing.
How To Become An Augmented Engineer
Accept that AI is a powerful tool in your arsenal for implementing solutions.
Invest your time and energy in improving your ability to think and other soft skills. Learn how to use AI as part of your development flow. Let it help with the mundane and solve the well scoped problems you provide.
Here are three actions you can take this week to develop into an Augmented Engineer:
- Write an elevator pitch for your current project. Spend 20 minutes and list out the 2–3 key points of what you are working on. Turn this into a concise summary. Improves thinking via writing and distilling.
- Listen in your next 1:1, don’t wait for your turn to speak. Make a conscious effort during your next 1:1 to focus on what your colleague is saying. Don’t latch onto the first though that pops into your mind and wait for your turn to reply. Focus on listening. Improves your interpersonal relationships.
- Read something unrelated to your field. Go to a site like HackerNews and click on an article you wouldn’t normally read. Explore this new domain. Improves neuroplasticity and thinking.
AI is a wonderful gift that frees us up to be more human.
By adapting our careers today, we position ourselves to thrive as AI eats the world.
I look forward to learning with you on this journey.
What have you been doing to adapt to AI?
