Am I a Developer or Just a Prompt Engineer?

Three years ago, if you asked me "what do you do?" I had an answer I'm a software developer. I write code. I fix bugs. I solve problems.

Confident. Clear. No hesitation.

Last week, a junior developer asked me the same question What do you actually do?

I opened my mouth. Nothing came out Not because I forgot. Because I genuinely didn't know anymore I write code, I finally said. "But AI writes most of it."

So you're a prompt engineer? they asked.

I laughed. Then I stopped. Because the question wasn't wrong Three years ago, I knew who I was. Today, I'm not sure.

This isn't an anti-AI article. It's not about going back. It's about waking up one day and realizing you don't know what to call yourself anymore.

Am I still a developer? Or did I trade the craft for a faster way to ship?

What I Used to Say

A few years ago, if someone asked what I did, the answer came easily.

"I'm a developer. I build software. I solve problems with code."

That answer had weight. It described not just what I did but who I was. There was something solid in it something that felt earned.

I'd spend weekends on side projects nobody asked for. I'd refactor the same function three times not because it needed it, but because making it elegant was its own reward. I'd debug for hours, not because it was the efficient choice, but because finding the bug felt like winning something. A small private lottery that only I knew I'd entered.

The code was mine. The struggle was mine. The satisfaction was mine.

I'd read other people's code just to see how they thought. I'd have opinions about architecture. Strong ones. I'd argue about naming conventions longer than was reasonable, because the names mattered to me, because the code mattered, because I was in it.

That person feels like a different person now.

The Shift I Didn't Notice

It didn't happen overnight. That's what makes it hard to point to.

First, I used AI for boilerplate. The tedious stuff scaffolding, config files, the repetitive patterns I'd written a hundred times. No identity loss there. Smart move.

Then, I used it for functions I could write but didn't want to. Faster. Still felt fine.

Then, I used it for functions I should have known. This is where I should have paused. I didn't.

Then, I stopped writing code first. I started prompting first. Why struggle with something for twenty minutes when AI can produce a working version in ten seconds?

Then, I stopped evaluating the output carefully. I started skimming it. Shipping it.

Then, last week, a junior developer asked me "what do you actually do?" — and I had nothing.

The shift wasn't a decision I made. It was a thousand small yeses, each one feeling like efficiency, none of them feeling like losing something — until I looked back and couldn't find the person I used to be.

That's the thing about gradual loss. You don't feel it happening. You only notice it's gone.

So... What Am I Now?

A prompt engineer writes prompts. A developer builds systems.

I still do both. I still think about architecture. I still care about edge cases. I still debug though less often, and less deeply than I used to. I still have opinions about how things should be built.

But I also spend a significant part of my day generating, skimming, accepting, and shipping code I didn't fully think through. Code that works. Code that isn't really mine.

So where's the line?

Here's the honest answer I've landed on, after weeks of not wanting to say it out loud: I'm both. And neither. And the ratio is what actually matters.

I'm a developer when I'm designing the system when I'm reasoning about trade-offs, when I'm catching what the AI missed, when I'm asking "is this the right solution" instead of just "does this work."

I'm a prompt engineer when I'm just generating and shipping. When I've outsourced not just the typing, but the thinking.

The title doesn't matter. The ratio does.

Am I spending most of my time thinking and using AI to express those thoughts? Then I'm a developer who uses AI.

Am I spending most of my time prompting and occasionally skimming? Then I'm a prompt engineer who used to be a developer.

The terrifying part is that the ratio shifts quietly. You don't notice it moving until someone asks a simple question and you don't have an answer.

What I'm Actually Doing About It

I'm not quitting AI. That's not the answer, and honestly it's not what I want. AI has made me faster at the parts of development I find least interesting, which in theory should free me up for the parts I find most interesting.

The problem is that "in theory" is doing a lot of work in that sentence.

So I'm trying small things. Not a productivity system. Not a manifesto. Small things.

One hour, no AI, every morning. The first hour of my coding day — no Copilot, no Cursor, nothing. Just me and the problem. It's slower. Sometimes frustrating. It's also mine in a way that the rest of the day often isn't.

One honest question at the end of each day. "Did I think today, or did I just generate?" No audience. No performance. Just an honest answer to myself.

Building things nobody will ever see. No metrics. No deployment. No PR approvals. Just creation for the sake of creating, which turns out to be harder than it sounds when you've spent years optimizing for output.

Remembering the junior's question. Not to feel guilty. To stay honest about the answer.

Will these things fix the identity crisis? Probably not. But they slow the drift. And right now, slowing the drift feels like enough.

The Hard Truth

Here's what I've accepted: I'll never be the developer I was before AI. That version of me is gone not because AI took something from me, but because I gave it away. One shortcut at a time. One skipped debugging session at a time. One prompt where there used to be thinking.

But I don't think that makes me just a prompt engineer.

It means I need a new, honest answer to the question. One that accounts for what I've lost and what I've actually gained. One that doesn't pretend the craft is exactly what it used to be, but doesn't write it off either.

Developer who uses AI feels close.

Developer who still cares about the difference feels closer.