As AI-powered tools increasingly automate tasks like code generation, bug detection, and optimization, software engineers fear their roles may shift away from hands-on development toward higher level oversight, reducing the need for deep programming expertise. However, this shift also presents opportunities for engineers to evolve their skill sets, focusing more on AI integration, data-driven decision-making, and managing complex systems, thus staying relevant in an AI-augmented future. 

Our guest on today’s Steering Engineering Podcast, Cat Hicks, discusses key findings and insights from her research, including a set of thriving factors for software engineering leaders to promote and anti-thriving factors to avoid.