I'm wondering what you are doing to feel that much of a productivity boost? There have been three occasions since 2022 where I felt concretely 10X more productive. The rest of the time I'm not feeling a huge / direct impact. While it isn't necessarily drastically more productive in a linear sense (churning out more of the same stuff for instance) things have radically changed nonetheless.
From that standpoint, it's definitely happening already. But removal is easier too now. The real question is whether teams will have the discipline to delete. Most won't, but those who do will build better products.
I am beginning to notice more "features" in apps that suspiciously raise questions: "Was that feature really needed and was the AI to sneak it in there!?"
I'm building a startup myself and we vibe code everything, except core/complex parts where AI struggles.
My workflow:
1. Give the agent detailed task + relevant file contexts (so it doesn't waste time searching)
2. Guide it with continuous feedback when it veers off
3. Jump in manually if it's going completely wrong direction
I use Claude Code for the agent work, Cursor for manual edits.
Key insight: AI coding works as well as your architecture does. I make all architecture decisions, file structure, organization -- AI just writes the implementation logic.
Clean architecture = better AI output.
I believe This is becoming the norm because it gives startups massive velocity advantage. That's probably why your CTO is pushing it.
Career impact? As a senior who understands what AI writes, you're gaining superpowers, not losing skills. You were previously bottlenecked by implementation speed and needed other engineers. Now you can be a 10x engineer - as long as you can envision the architecture, AI helps you build it faster.
The key is knowing when to guide vs when to take over. That judgment comes from experience.
And missing sources:
https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-in-microsoft-foundry
https://www.anthropic.com/news/microsoft-nvidia-anthropic-an...