It seems like a solid set of criteria for how easily a task can be automated by AI agents is: - extent to which correctness of solution be easily specified and checked - extent to which new potential solutions can be implemented as text - extent to which prior art exists online This basically maps to software engineering and math. I think a fair bit of AI hype comes from the fact that the very architects of AI are th…
The job of a programmer isn't to write code, but to automate things. Code itself doesn't have any value unless it solves some real problem not related to coding. So if the work of a programmer can be automated then this means that any work can be automated. So no, it's not about software engineering only.
Compilers, programming languages, IDEs, toolings all solve problems related to coding and are valuable.