In that sense it feels more like move from:

assembly -> C

C -> python

With some people still around to confirm the lower level parts are working as expected. I've already moved more to the describing the technical solution rather than implementing it. Hopefully this puts me in a good place.

Hopefully Sounds great

Yeah. It would mean we get to level up; we get to use better tools. AI is still a tool; use it to be able to take on bigger jobs.

If my job becomes about telling a chatbot to write code and not actually doing any coding myself, I think I'll find a new career because that sounds hellish

It may sound a bit pedantic, but this is why I prefer the term "software engineer". I don't write code. I solve problems, typically by writing code. AI just shortens the gap between my intuition and solving the problems. Yes it will obviate the need for me to be in the loop in some cases, but in the same way that automation obviates the need for coal miners and other mundane, dangerous, or otherwise uninspiring jobs, AI will obviate the need for us to write boilerplate, setup the 100000th CRUD app of our careers, write the same login endpoint for the 50000th time, etc... In our lifetimes, I'm doubtful that AI will replace my creativity and ability to synthesize large amounts of multi-domain information into a reasonable solution for end-users. I'm not doubtful that will happen eventually, I just don't see it impacting my job prospects prior to my retirement.

Yeah already experiencing this. Things take the same time just that my ambitions on what to build in that time is much bigger. And if everyone is shipping such ambitious software then we all have to up our game