There are 3 functional futures for AI coding assistants, depending on what they provide, and all of which support order of magnitude different pricing: 1. Vibe

There are 3 functional futures for AI coding assistants, depending on what they provide, and all of which support order of magnitude different pricing: 1. Vibe coder's wet dream = generates working technical product direct from product owner requirements = can be priced up to 99% of senior developer compensation (incl benefits / taxes) 2. Productivity multiplier = fills in gaps, but requires technical architecture and planning knowledge = can be priced up to 99% of junior developer compensation (incl benefits / taxes) 3. Macro on steroids = ignorantly expands code or performs basic tasks, but screws things up frequently enough, both obviously and subtly, to still benefit from even a junior dev driving it = can be priced up to 99% of team size reduction Technically, even if we're only in #3 (and I think there's a strong case to be made that we're there), these solutions are drastically underpriced according to human labor decreasing (e.g. axing the equivalent FTE hours it would have taken to write test coverage). * And don't forget the number they're replacing from the company perspective isn't {salary} but {salary+benefits+taxes}, which can be substantially greater