AI is the new "how can we automate this"

Published: March 28, 2026 · 1 min read

Good engineering teams have always had a reflex for repetitive work: can we automate this? The moment something becomes a pattern, someone's already thinking about how to stop doing it manually.

That same question is shifting, and whether you're ready for it or not, you're going to get asked it, or start asking it yourself. It's not a new instinct, it's the same one engineers have always had about removing friction, just with a different tool to reach for.

Knowing when AI is actually the right call versus when it's not is becoming a core engineering skill, the same way knowing when to write a script versus when to just do the thing manually has always been. The goal hasn't changed. Handle the tedious parts faster, make the job easier, and save the hard calls for the decisions that actually need it.

The teams that figure this out early are going to move faster, not necessarily because they're using AI for everything, but because they know when it's actually worth reaching for.