---
type: source
title: "Is Software Engineering Finally Dead?"
description: "Coding agents are powerful enough to replace most coding, but software engineering is not dying, the role is evolving toward context and intent engineering, and enterprise adoption is far slower than tech-leader hype claims."
youtube_id: tjBpm91ZQM0
url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjBpm91ZQM0
slug: is-software-engineering-finally-dead
published: 2026-03-04
duration: "0:17:23"
recency_rank: 29
raw: "../raw/is-software-engineering-finally-dead.md"
tags: [ai-coding, career, intent-engineering, piv-loop]
created: 2026-07-21
updated: 2026-07-21
---

# Is Software Engineering Finally Dead?

Cole responds to the recurring 'software engineering is dead' narrative pushed by tech leaders (Dario Amodei, Jensen Huang, Sam Altman, the Microsoft AI CEO) and to Boris Cherny's widely-misinterpreted 'coding is largely solved' comment. He argues these leaders are biased and living in a bubble, you can 'follow the money' from Anthropic's jump to a $380B valuation to Nvidia's and OpenAI's fortunes, and that two caveats are being dismissed: (1) there is far more to software engineering than writing code, and (2) real enterprise adoption of AI coding tools is far lower than headlines suggest.

The core argument for why engineers are still essential is framed as the evolution from prompt engineering to context engineering to intent engineering. Prompt engineering is just wording things well for a single output; context engineering builds an entire system of context (architecture, tech stack, key decisions) so the agent can plausibly solve the task; intent engineering (a term Cole credits Nate B. Jones with popularizing) adds explicit success criteria, self-validation, and tight alignment on what is actually being built. Each step looks more like traditional software engineering, everything except the coding becomes the human's responsibility. Cole shares his own arc from an AI-refusing hand-coder in 2024 to running his PIV loop (plan, implement, validate), where he stays in the driver's seat for planning and validation and delegates implementation.

On adoption, Cole cites data undercutting the hype: 90% of engineering teams 'use AI' but only 51% of professional developers use it daily; 76% of executives believe their teams have embraced AI vs 52% of engineers; 21% of AI licenses go underutilized. Corporate red tape, procurement, security reviews, and skeptical senior engineers make enterprise rollout slow. His practical advice: never vibe anything into production, keep your technical skills sharp, use the coding agent as an educator (not just a coder) so you never lose understanding of your codebase, and treat AI as a force multiplier while maintaining deep craft, the people who give up agency entirely have no fallback when the AI is wrong.

## Concepts covered

- [The Evolution of AI Coding](../concepts/the-evolution-of-ai-coding.md)
- [Context Engineering](../concepts/context-engineering.md)
- [Intent Engineering](../concepts/intent-engineering.md)
- [The PIV Loop](../concepts/the-piv-loop.md)
- [Validation](../concepts/validation.md)
- [Vibe Coding](../concepts/vibe-coding.md)
- [Human in the Loop](../concepts/human-in-the-loop.md)
- [Planning with AI](../concepts/planning-with-ai.md)

## Entities

- [Cole Medin](../entities/people/cole-medin.md)
- [Anthropic](../entities/organizations/anthropic.md)
- [Boris Cherny](../entities/people/boris-cherny.md)
- [Windsurf](../entities/tools/windsurf.md)
- [Dynamous](../entities/organizations/dynamous.md)
- [Nvidia](../entities/organizations/nvidia.md)
- [OpenAI](../entities/organizations/openai.md)

## Key moments

- **[0:00:00]** The recurring 'software engineering is 6 months from dead' narrative; Dario Amodei's 90%-of-code and 2026-extinction claims
- **[0:00:45]** Other biased tech leaders: Jensen Huang, Amazon cloud CEO, Sam Altman, Microsoft AI CEO
- **[0:02:12]** Two dismissed caveats: low enterprise adoption + software engineering is more than coding
- **[0:03:00]** Boris Cherny's 'coding is largely solved' misinterpreted; his X clarification that great engineers matter more than ever
- **[0:04:18]** 'Follow the money', Anthropic $61.5B to $380B, Nvidia, OpenAI valuations explain the bias
- **[0:05:51]** Cole's personal arc: AI-refusing hand-coder in 2024 to teaching thousands; installed Windsurf Nov 2024
- **[0:06:23]** The PIV loop (plan, implement, validate), human owns planning and validation, delegates implementation
- **[0:08:01]** The evolution: prompt engineering to context engineering to intent engineering
- **[0:11:31]** Enterprise adoption reality: gung-ho vs resistant senior engineers, hallucination and security concerns
- **[0:13:32]** Adoption data: 90% teams use AI but only 51% daily; 76% execs vs 52% engineers; 21% licenses underutilized
- **[0:15:20]** Practical advice: never vibe into production, keep skills sharp, use AI as educator not just coder

## Transcript

[Raw transcript](../raw/is-software-engineering-finally-dead.md)
