We are excited to kick off our new thought leadership series, brought to you direct form our engineering team. “The Augmented Engineer”, explores the real, practical impact of Artificial Intelligence on engineering disciplines. AI has moved from a novelty to a necessity. It’s already sitting inside our editors, our platforms, and our pipelines.

Everyone is talking about AI, but the conversation often gets bogged down in fear or hype, the idea that AI is here to either steal our jobs or that it’s just a flashy shortcut with dire consequences, which some dismiss as "vibe coding".

We are here to challenge that. Our series is dedicated to showing that using AI in engineering is not vibe coding. Instead, it's about embracing augmentation.

Augmented engineering: my approach

Coding has changed so much since I started out writing my first C++ "hello world" program in basic Notepad, a manual, painstaking process. Switching to Visual Studio in the early 2000’s and getting Intellisense, seeing function definitions instantly, genuinely felt like I'd gained a superpower.

Augmented Engineering is a more deliberate approach. It treats AI as a partner in the craft, supporting understanding, clarity, and speed while leaving decision making, design, and accountability with the human.

We are skipping the abstract theory to focus on the problems that actually annoy us. Our series launches with a deep dive into a high stakes reality: Responding to a Critical Incident.

Understanding the shift

Engineering today carries a long list of pressures: demanding delivery schedules, complex systems built from many moving parts, and the constant requirement to keep services reliable. In this series we will cut through the noise and agree on what actually matters when adopting AI.

Vibe coding: the shortcut trap

Vibe coding describes a way of working where a coder relies on AI to output the solution without enough scrutiny or verifying the result.

The pattern is usually easy to spot:

• Inconsistent naming conventions.
• It may be overly commented.
• You may spot functions that do almost the same thing.
• Small uncertainties are glossed over.

The problem with 'vibe coding' is that it skips the actual engineering. When you use AI as a crutch instead of a tool, you end up with a mess. Instead you should use AI as a way to augment your engineering skills.

Why explore AI augmentation

Technology has always been about refining how we find answers. A decade ago, we developed "Google-fu" , the specific skill of navigating Google and Stack Overflow to find the right snippet or documentation. Today, AI augmented engineering is simply the next iteration of that craft.

Finding the right fit rather than a sudden disruption, we see this as a gradual enhancement. Much like IDE autocompletion handles boilerplate, AI tools can clear the path for high level architecture and problem solving.

By experimenting now, while these models are still maturing, we ensure the "human in the loop" remains the critical driver. This series is less about the technology itself and more about the people behind the keyboard exploring a new set of tools and being transparent about what works and what doesn't.

What's coming up in the series?

Over the next few months, we’ll break down how AI is enabling our roles, using real situations from our engineering teams. We aim to make our lives better as developers.

The goal throughout is simple: AI should help engineers do their best work, without diluting judgment, quality, or ownership.

Join us next week as we dive deeper into the first practical example of the Augmented Engineer.