Software engineering is about managing complexity

Software engineering involves deciding what code should exist, how components interact, and managing constraints, trade-offs, and long-term evolution, whereas AI excels at translating ideas into executable code. Architectural choices depend on factors such as user scale, team size, consistency requirements, timeline, existing infrastructure, and budget, leading to multiple valid solutions. AI serves as a productivity tool for generating boilerplate, exploring APIs, and detecting bugs, while engineers retain responsibility for the strategic trade-offs.