AI's Hidden Cost: Why Recruiting Great Engineers Just Got Harder

AI has democratized product development, making it easier to ship prototypes and polished demos. However, this accessibility masks a critical hiring challenge: visible output no longer reliably signals engineering excellence. Senior engineer value lies not in production speed but in judgment—preventing costly mistakes, asking better questions, and knowing what not to build. Companies must evolve their hiring processes to assess decision-making under ambiguity rather than rely on portfolios and proofs of work that AI can now artificially inflate.