AI coding agents have crossed a significant threshold where they consistently generate code that compiles, a frequent failure point just months ago. This marks a major step in reliability, shifting the core challenge from syntactic correctness to verifying logical and behavioral correctness.

Snyk founder's new venture, TESOL, posits that AI will make code disposable. Instead of code being the source of truth, a durable, versioned 'spec' document defining requirements will become the core asset. AI agents will generate the implementation, fundamentally changing software development.

Interacting with powerful coding agents requires a new skill: specifying requirements with extreme clarity. The creative process will be driven less by writing code line-by-line and more by crafting unambiguous natural language prompts. This elevates clear specification as a core competency for software engineers.

Unlike traditional programming, which demands extreme precision, modern AI agents operate from business-oriented prompts. Given a high-level goal and minimal context (like a single class name), an AI can infer intent and generate a complete, multi-file solution.

Cognition's Scott Wu predicts that AI will elevate software development to a new level of abstraction. Instead of reviewing code, engineers will review and iterate on English-language specifications and product decisions. The AI agent will handle the code generation, making English the new "source of truth."

With AI generating code, a developer's value shifts from writing perfect syntax to validating that the system works as intended. Success is measured by outcomes—passing tests and meeting requirements—not by reading or understanding every line of the generated code.

Formal verification, the process of mathematically proving software correctness, has been too complex for widespread use. New AI models can now automate this, allowing developers to build systems with mathematical guarantees against certain bugs—a huge step for creating trust in high-stakes financial software.

AI excels at generating code, making that task a commodity. The new high-value work for engineers is "verification”—ensuring the AI's output is not just bug-free, but also valuable to customers, aligned with business goals, and strategically sound.

It's infeasible for humans to manually review thousands of lines of AI-generated code. The abstraction of review is moving up the stack. Instead of checking syntax, developers will validate high-level plans, two-sentence summaries, and behavioral outcomes in a testing environment.