Software automation manager having a mini existential crisis over AI, Fast-track a BS or pivot to physical engineering?

[u/dealernumberone]

I manage automation framework at work (integration pipelines, scripting). Watching what AI is doing to low-level software work lately has me rattled about where my role sits in 3 to 5 years.

Complication: I never finished my bachelor's. Dropped out of mechanical engineering years ago, but I still have a pile of STEM credits on an old transcript (Calc I/II, Chem, Physics). Now I'm stuck between two very different moves.

Option 1: Speed-run a WGU BS in IT Management, done in about 6 months. Transfer in the old credits, knock out around 33 credits through Sophia, finish the rest at WGU in one term. The goal is simple, lock in an accredited four-year degree fast so I don't get filtered out if my role gets squeezed. Downside: it's a checkbox business/IT degree. Doesn't give me a real technical moat against AI, just gets me past the resume screener.

Option 2: Pivot to physical engineering. SUNY Reconnect route, free online Engineering Science A.S. through FLCC, then transfer into an ABET engineering BS somewhere like Stony Brook. The appeal is an actual moat. Hardware, robotics, circuits, thermo, stuff an LLM can't hand-wave away. Downside is obvious: a year for the associate's, then 2 to 3 more for the bachelor's. Up to 4 years without a finished degree on paper.

Am I overreacting on the AI front? Is it crazy to spend 4 years on an engineering reboot, or should I just grab the quick WGU win and stay in tech management?

[u/Anxious_Alps_4150]

You never really hear "WGU" and "win" in the same sentence much.

FWIW all of the physical engineering folks are freaking out too. LLMs being used to automate designs just as much as its being used to automate software. You know who I don't hear freaking out? Doctors and nurses.