AI and the miter saw

AI is another tool in the toolbelt. A powerful tool that is reshaping roles in many industries. But it is still just a tool, and a tool is only as good as the person using it.

Carpenters used to rely on hand tools, then came power tools like the miter saw. With a miter saw, they could complete certain tasks much faster. But they still needed a range of other tools for different problems. The carpenter is the essential part of the trade, not the tools, and skill and judgment determine how each tool is used to its full potential.

If you give someone who does not care about quality a miter saw and a truck full of 2x4s, they can cut 100 boards to the wrong length very quickly. A lot of activity gets completed: “we reduced our board cutting time by 10x,” “we only need 1 carpenter when we used to need 5,” and so on. But someone still has to answer for the result. It is easy to propagate mistakes or build a flawed foundation with a powerful tool. If a tool is off by just 1 degree, something a skilled practitioner would catch early but a careless person might overlook, and you use it to build a house, you will eventually run into major problems. A powerful tool requires vigilance, and it can just as easily cause harm as it can efficiency.

Output can scale 10x, but quality gates cannot, at least not while engineers remain responsible for the final result. Unless AI is allowed to independently own features and outcomes, every deliverable still requires human review, judgment, and accountability. The volume of output may grow exponentially, but the engineer’s capacity to validate it does not. AI can help increase that capacity, but not in direct proportion to the increase in output.