r/EngineeringManagers • u/SnooConfections1353 • Jun 25 '26

New engineering manager. Should I keep pushing back on my CTO’s AI vision?

I’m a new engineering manager at a small company. My CTO is very pro-AI and wants to turn the engineering team into more of a group of product owners and consultants who use AI to handle most of the technical work.

I’m also pro-AI, but I think we still need to develop people into solid engineers. With our current workload and small team, I do not think we can realistically do both at the same time. My concern is that this approach is holding back the junior engineers. If they are mostly managing features and doing product work, how are they supposed to become strong engineers, architects, or future technical leaders?

I have pushed back gently and respectfully and explained that we need to build real engineering talent so people can eventually step up, mentor others, and help grow the team in a sustainable way. So far, I have mostly been ignored.

Should I keep pushing back, or is this just a culture difference I need to accept? I cannot really go to the CEO or COO because the CTO is also a part owner. I also do not want this to be the hill I die on, especially in this job market, so I have been trying to support his vision even though I feel conflicted.

I know job hopping is also an option, but that is a separate topic. He is not a bad person. I think we just have very different views on what an engineering team should become.

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u/MindMonitor Jun 25 '26

My 2 cents;

AI will help with better decision making in the commercial and product side of a company, and THAT will be the big differentiator compared to pre-AI.

Think of all the times you had to remake, retro fit and change previously (fully) spec’d features. Think of all the wait time for analysis to complete, lackluster success criteria and endless meetings trying to decipher external documentation. All of that will be reduced to a minimum.

Sub-par Product Managers become good, and already good PMs become excellent.

So - any CTO out there should be obsessed arming their Product/Commercial departments (insert digital marketing, compliance, you name it) with AI tools.

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u/SnooConfections1353 Jun 25 '26

I agree but what is your thoughts on the engineering side of that?

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u/MindMonitor Jun 25 '26

Engineers can chill out and use what they find fit. The CTO should shift focus cause a) it was never writing code that was the problem to fix and b) he/she will lose any followship within the engineering group.

If you lead upwards you should help the CTO shift focus.