AI Is Creating a New Kind of Technical Debt: Comprehension Debt

AI is not replacing software engineers. It is amplifying them. The question is whether it is amplifying good engineering practices or bad ones.

Artificial Intelligence has fundamentally changed software development. Today, a developer can generate APIs, database layers, tests, infrastructure templates, documentation, and even complete features in minutes. Tasks that previously required days of work can now be completed during a single coffee break.

The productivity gains are real. However, many engineering organizations are discovering a less visible side effect: they are shipping more code than they can actually understand.