Don't panic about AI

Disclaimer: This is an English adaptation of my original column for the 42 Gyeongsan campus newspaper. Rewritten in English by yours truly.

Talk to any developer lately, and you’ll hear the same thing: the job market is not like before. It’s bad, We are seeing tech layoffs and endless headlines screaming “AI will dominate SW engineer jobs!” (In Korea, at least). But follow the money, and you see a totally different story.

Investment in the Valley actually went up in January 2026. The cash didn’t disappear. The rule has changed. VCs are sick of throwing money at “AI for the sake of AI.” Today, they care about AI that solves actual, real-world problems.

So, where is the money landing? Two key words: Agentic AI and Physical AI.

On the flip side, investors are running away from “AI wrappers” - Yeah, those flimsy services that just slap a UI on top of an existing API. Crunchbase’s January 2025 report backs this up perfectly. AI startups pulled in a massive $211 billion in 2025, an 85% jump from the year before.

The well hasn’t dried up. The game just changed, and the new rule is all about efficiency.

Look at the numbers from Sequoia Capital. Traditional SaaS companies usually enjoy a 60% user retention rate. For AI wrappers? That number plummets to a miserable 14%. Yep, people hate it.

The math behind their revenue model is just as bad. I mean, really bad. An analysis by a16z points out that these wrapper startups are bleeding cash, handing over 30% of their revenue straight to model providers just to pay for API usage fees.

Just look at who actually raised the HUGE money in 2025. The flow is crystal clear:

Series A: VCs were busy writing checks to industry-specific and Agentic AI startups like Cognition and Xaira.
Series B: Physical AI takes the spotlight, led by companies like Physical Intelligence.
Series C: The massive rounds are flowing into heavy infrastructure and special-purpose AI, like Saronic.

What do all these companies have in common? They aren’t just selling “AI.” They treat AI purely as a tool to solve real problems.

So what does that mean? The demand for developers who just stitch APIs together and glue frameworks is tanking. Why? Because AI can do it faster and cheaper (and they can work 24/7!).

Yeah. That’s why we must focus on basics like CS, math, etc… Lame and same message but we have to do something that AI can’t. Like decision-making, constructing and optimizing whole architecture.

Remember, LLMs (what people say ‘AI’) are just big ass statistical models. Never outsource your core business to a math equation. It is just a powerful tool. Not a magical wand.

Don't panic about AI

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