AI Engineering

Mar 22, 2026 · R&D Management

When Code Is Free, How Engineers Stay Valuable – Simon’s Engineering Patterns

The guide reveals that while AI agents have reduced code generation costs to near zero, the true expense lies in ensuring quality, requiring engineers to shift from writing code to defining problems, designing agentic systems, and applying rigorous testing patterns such as red‑green TDD, context‑managed sub‑agents, and advanced Git workflows.