AI Will Never Replace Engineering Judgment

A 2025 Stack Overflow Developer Survey reveals 66% of developers spend more time fixing 'almost-right' AI-generated code, highlighting that working code does not equate to good engineering. The article argues that AI will never replace engineering judgment, as poorly engineered code can introduce hidden complexity and side effects.

Member-only story AI Will Never Replace Engineering Judgment But it will expose whether you have it. Not a member? Read this story for . free In the age of AI, it has become easier than ever to forget one of the simplest rules of software engineering: just because code works, it doesn’t mean it is right . According to the 2025 Stack Overflow Developer Survey https://stackoverflow.blog/2025/12/29/developers-remain-willing-but-reluctant-to-use-ai-the-2025-developer-survey-results-are-here/ : 66% of developers say they are spending more time fixing “almost-right” AI-generated code. That points to the real danger : poorly engineered AI-generated code does not necessarily look wrong. It may pass a quick test, solve the problem at hand, and even look clean enough during a quick review. But without a thorough analysis, it can still introduce unnecessary complexity, hidden side effects, or one-off decisions that don’t fit the application’s patterns and boundaries. This is why engineering judgment matters more than ever. Working Code Is Not the Same as Good Engineering In software development, the cost of a bad engineering decision is usually paid when the code has to be changed, reused, tested, or extended.