# Why Agentic Coding Tools Require Software Engineers to Focus on Building Products

DevFeed: [Why Agentic Coding Tools Require Software Engineers to Focus on Building Products](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/become-builders-not-coders-29993.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://engineering.indeedblog.com/blog/2026/03/become-builders-not-coders/>)

Author: Michael Werle

Published: 2026-03-06T15:07:10Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Indeed](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/indeed.md>)

Topics: [ai-coding](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ai-coding.md>), [AI Development](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ai-development.md>), [Software Engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/software-engineering.md>), [Model Context Protocol](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/model-context-protocol.md>), [ide](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ide.md>)

Tags: [agentic-coding](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/agentic-coding.md>), [ai](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai.md>), [ai-coding](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai-coding.md>), [context-engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/context-engineering.md>), [engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/engineering.md>), [engineering-culture](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/engineering-culture.md>), [how-to](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/how-to.md>), [mcp](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/mcp.md>), [sandboxing](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/sandboxing.md>), [software-engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/software-engineering.md>), [unsorted](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/unsorted.md>)

## AI overview

This opinion article argues that software engineers should adapt to agentic coding tools by focusing less on manual coding and more on building products that solve customer problems. It describes the author's changing views on AI-assisted programming and highlights context engineering, MCP, skills, sandboxing, subagents, and related tools, while acknowledging significant security and automation risks.

## Source excerpt

Why agentic coding tools demand a new identity for software engineers After more than two decades of professional software engineering, I have arrived at a set of conclusions that I find very uncomfortable. The era of mostly manual coding has ended. IDEs, in their current form, are no longer necessary. Traditional software development languages are [...]