‘Not my cup of tea’ is the most expensive sentence in your engineering org
Executive Take
Engineers who hide behind narrow specialties are the first to become invisible as AI absorbs routine coding work. Hiring and promotion criteria need to reward people who can cross silos and talk to customers, not just write code.
Executive Summary
An opinion piece argues that AI has made coding cheap and commoditized, while communication and cross-functional judgment have become the scarce, valuable skills. It cites LinkedIn data ranking communication as the top skill for 2024, Sonar data showing AI now assists 42% of committed code (up from 6% in 2023), and Cloudflare's claim that 97% of its engineers use AI tools with AI agents reviewing all production code.
Why It Matters
HR and technology leaders should care because performance reviews and interview loops built around narrow technical puzzles now select for the wrong traits. CIOs and CTOs need to redesign org charts around problems, not tools, before AI finishes commoditizing coding skills.