Is a CS degree still relevant in the age of AI?

Neither of them writes code by hand anymore.

And here's what scared me nobody's hiring the people who were supposed to learn how to write it.

I build web and mobile apps. I work with founders. I talk to developers every week. And what I'm seeing isn't a theory or a prediction  it's happening right now, in real companies, to real people.

So let me ask the question everyone's avoiding: In the age of AI, is a Computer Science degree still worth it?

Let's start with the uncomfortable truth.

Entry level coding  the kind of work juniors used to do is being handled by AI. Not perfectly. Not always. But well enough that companies have stopped paying people to do it manually.

I interview colleagues. I talk to friends at big companies. The story is the same everywhere:

Developers don't write code by hand anymore.

They prompt. They review. They debug. They check if the AI output makes sense. But the days of sitting down and typing out functions line by line? For most routine work, those days are gone.

One friend told me his company gave everyone a Claude Code subscription and said: "Use AI as much as you can. Do it fast."

The pressure is intense. Managers say things like: "AI does everything. Why haven't you finished yet?"

They don't understand that reviewing AI-generated code, catching its mistakes, and integrating it into a real system takes time. They just see the AI writing code in seconds and assume the whole job should be that fast.

So yes  Entry level coding is solved. Accept it. The question is: what's left?

Here's where it gets personal.

A friend of mine works at a mid-sized software company. I asked him: "How's hiring going?"

He said: "We haven't hired a single junior developer since 2024. 2024 was the last hire."

Layoffs are happening. Teams are shrinking. And the message from management is clear: use AI, do more with less, don't ask for more people.

Now think about what that means.

If companies stop hiring juniors in 2024, 2025, 2026 who becomes the senior engineers of 2030?

Where do the next generation of architects, system designers, and technical leads come from?

The entry level ladder isn't just being automated. It's being pulled up.

And nobody's talking about what happens when we need senior engineers who were never allowed to start.

So is a CS degree useless? No. That's not what I'm saying.

The degree isn't the problem. The speed is.

When I was in college, I did a minor in game development. They taught me tools the gaming industry had already abandoned. By the time I graduated, half of what I learned was outdated.

Software reinvents itself every two years. A degree takes four. Do the math.

Colleges teach yesterday's tools. Companies use today's. AI accelerates tomorrow's. The gap between what you learn and what the market needs grows wider every semester.

I'm not saying don't get the degree. I'm saying: don't wait for it to teach you everything. Because it can't. It moves too slow.

Here's something people forget: AI doesn't have ideas. It doesn't have direction. It doesn't have judgment.

AI needs:

Tokens :  someone has to pay for it

Money :  someone has to fund the project

The idea : someone has to decide what to build

The direction someone has to say "this is good, this is wrong, this is what users actually need"

That someone is still you.AI executes. You decide.

The developers who thrive in this era aren't the ones who compete with AI on speed. They're the ones who use AI to amplify their judgment. They know what to build, they know how to architect it, and they know how to keep it running when things go wrong.

Curiosity, judgment, and architecture these are the human skills that survive.

So what should you actually do if you're new to computer science?

Here's my honest advice: Don't wait for college.

I'm not saying drop out. I'm saying: don't rely on your college to teach you everything. Because it won't. It can't. It's too slow.

Start building. Today.

Use AI to make a simple version of something you want to exist.

Hit a difficulty? Debug it. Figure it out. Ask AI. Ask Google.

Be curious. Follow the thread. Learn as you go.

Build another thing. Then another.

Learn architecture by breaking things and fixing them.

Learn system design by building systems that need it.

The people I see thriving aren't the ones who waited for permission. They're the ones who started building before they felt ready.

Because here's the truth: four years is a very long time when the world moves in 6months cycle

One more thing. Pricing is dropping.

Because AI makes building cheaper, more people can build. That means more competition. That means clients expect to pay less for basic apps.

Cheap apps for everyone. Expensive systems for those who need reliability.

If you're building simple apps, you're in a race to the bottom. If you're building systems that scale, that don't break, that handle millions of users you're in a different market entirely.

Know which market you're in. And know which one you want to be in.

Here's my answer:

The degree isn't dead. But the default value is gone.

A CS degree used to be a guaranteed path to a good job. That's no longer true. Too many graduates. Too few entry level roles. Too much pressure from AI.

But the degree still matters if you use it right.

Get the fundamentals. Algorithms, systems design, mathematics. These don't go out of style.

Don't wait for college to teach you everything. Start building from day one.

Master AI, don't compete with it. Use it to amplify your output.

Stay curious. The people who thrive are the ones who learn as they go.

And here's the bigger problem we need to talk about:

If companies stop hiring juniors, stop training them, and stop letting them struggle through problems  we won't just lose entry level jobs. We'll lose the senior engineers of tomorrow.

AI can't replace what it never learned to build.

So when my friend told me nobody writes code by hand anymore, I didn't hear progress. I heard a warning.

The ladder is being pulled up. The question is: who's going to build the next generation of engineers if no one's allowed to start?