One signal

AI agents may be making code-writing cheap enough that the bottleneck shifts to review, operations and security, argues software engineer Laurie Voss in an essay published on Bryce Watson’s site.

Voss says agent-written code can increase the volume of commits without producing a matching rise in released software. That leaves human reviewers to judge whether code is genuinely ready to merge, not merely passing tests. The essay also argues that product management and software engineering are converging around a “product engineer” role focused on customer needs and specifications. It is a practitioner’s analysis, not evidence that the whole industry has already made the shift, but it gives the debate a useful practical focus: who decides what should be built, and who checks that the result is fit to ship?

Discuss: If AI makes writing code much cheaper, should engineers spend more of their time reviewing and operating software, or move towards product decisions and customer needs?

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