A mechanical engineer expects AI-powered CAD to turn them into a ‘prompt engineer’

A mechanical engineer says recent progress in AI-powered computer-aided design (CAD) has shaken their confidence that working with “atoms instead of bits” would make their job much harder to automate. They now expect to become a “prompt engineer,” but believe the transition will be slower than in software engineering. They cite the difficulty of training AI through physical-world feedback and argue that simulations cannot yet replace intuition developed through years of designing and working with real systems. Despite that shift in outlook, they welcome the future they envision.