--- title: Is Learning AI/ML Still Worth It Nowadays? | daily.dev description: A perspective on whether learning AI/ML is still worth it in the age of coding agents. The core argument is that while writing code is increasingly... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/is-learning-ai-ml-still-worth-it-nowadays--htdf6uois twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Is Learning AI/ML Still Worth It Nowadays? | daily.dev og:description: A perspective on whether learning AI/ML is still worth it in the age of coding agents. The core argument is that while writing code is increasingly... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/is-learning-ai-ml-still-worth-it-nowadays--htdf6uois og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/HTdF6uOiS.png og:image:alt: Is Learning AI/ML Still Worth It Nowadays? og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Is Learning AI/ML Still Worth It Nowadays? **[NeuralNine](https://daily.dev/sources/neuralnine)** · 2 min read · 47 upvotes · 8 comments ## Summary A perspective on whether learning AI/ML is still worth it in the age of coding agents. The core argument is that while writing code is increasingly commoditized by AI tools, deep understanding of fundamentals — math, statistics, model architectures, and first-principles reasoning — becomes more valuable, not less. Shallow AI/ML skills are already obsolete, but expert-level knowledge that lets you architect systems, evaluate agent output, and reason independently remains rare and highly valuable. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Is it still worth learning machine learning and programming fundamentals now that AI coding agents can write code? Yes, because writing lines of code has become a commodity while architectural thinking, creativity, and deep understanding have not. Experienced engineers still need to guide coding agents, judge whether their output is correct, and make design decisions for software and model architectures, which requires understanding math, statistics, and frameworks like PyTorch from first principles. _Developers weighing how much to learn versus delegate to AI agents can follow this debate on daily.dev._ ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@baz14** · 10 upvotes > A coder was in demand while the technology(language/lib/framework) was trending (1-3 years)🥵 > > An AI specialist is competent until the next version is released (0.5-1year)🫣 > > Only fundamental knowledge is stable. What was required 50 years ago will still be needed 50 years from now. Only the resources for studying change 😎 **@harshitmanepally** · 3 upvotes > No matter which age we may be, the fundamentals will always be needed, and that doesn't mean we need to go too deep into it, just the bare minimum to fulfill our needs. **@ahmetozel** · 1 upvotes > Agreed, and there is a practical version of this: the models keep changing, the failure modes do not. Retrieval that returns the wrong context, evaluation sets that leak, drift between training and serving data, cost blowing up at scale - those are the same problems they were five years ago and no coding agent solves them for you. Learning the fundamentals is what lets you diagnose which of them you are actually hitting. **@bruhhhh** · 0 upvotes > Why is ML bundled with AI? Prompting or creating an agent or a tool is just regular programming. It has nothing to do with Machine Learning/Statistics. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Yes, Learning to Code Is Still Valuable](https://daily.dev/posts/yes-learning-to-code-is-still-valuable-6wspsvg6s) · Adventures in Nodeland · 301 upvotes · 30 comments - [The AI coding boom is making fundamentals matter again](https://daily.dev/posts/the-ai-coding-boom-is-making-fundamentals-matter-again-psyrxnzfk) · LeadDev · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai](https://daily.dev/tags/ai), [#machine-learning](https://daily.dev/tags/machine-learning), [#ai-agents](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-agents), [#pytorch](https://daily.dev/tags/pytorch) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/is-learning-ai-ml-still-worth-it-nowadays--htdf6uois) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Is Learning AI/ML Still Worth It Nowadays?","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/is-learning-ai-ml-still-worth-it-nowadays--htdf6uois","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/is-learning-ai-ml-still-worth-it-nowadays--htdf6uois"},"datePublished":"2026-07-22T21:59:08.784Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T08:54:14.447Z","description":"A perspective on whether learning AI/ML is still worth it in the age of coding agents. 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What was required 50 years ago will still be needed 50 years from now. Only the resources for studying change 😎","datePublished":"2026-07-23T06:52:11.033Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/HTdF6uOiS#c-mO6uiZkZ7","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Baz","url":"https://daily.dev/baz14","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocKd2iFU8YS4sV-rBJptuYSF8EHeQnm23N_dcXE1uON7_GMIlZg=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":10}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"No matter which age we may be, the fundamentals will always be needed, and that doesn’t mean we need to go too deep into it, just the bare minimum to fulfill our needs.","datePublished":"2026-07-25T02:49:43.146Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/HTdF6uOiS#c-d1maogg9C","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"HARSHIT MANEPALLY","url":"https://daily.dev/harshitmanepally","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--O0TOmw4y--/f_auto/v1715772965/public/noProfile"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":3}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Agreed, and there is a practical version of this: the models keep changing, the failure modes do not. Retrieval that returns the wrong context, evaluation sets that leak, drift between training and serving data, cost blowing up at scale - those are the same problems they were five years ago and no coding agent solves them for you. Learning the fundamentals is what lets you diagnose which of them you are actually hitting.","datePublished":"2026-07-25T09:17:06.249Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/HTdF6uOiS#c-KuJ6r744i","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Ahmet Özel","url":"https://daily.dev/ahmetozel","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/70992231?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Why is ML bundled with AI? Prompting or creating an agent or a tool is just regular programming. It has nothing to do with Machine Learning/Statistics.","datePublished":"2026-07-23T13:52:07.356Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/HTdF6uOiS#c-kDCEGgpl5","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"bruhhhhh","url":"https://daily.dev/bruhhhh","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocLUjXU0toU6wv7W_awrsJzHs2N8xaVDyamMlGDam6EgScibuQ=s96-c"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/is-learning-ai-ml-still-worth-it-nowadays--htdf6uois#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Is it still worth learning machine learning and programming fundamentals now that AI coding agents can write code?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Yes, because writing lines of code has become a commodity while architectural thinking, creativity, and deep understanding have not. Experienced engineers still need to guide coding agents, judge whether their output is correct, and make design decisions for software and model architectures, which requires understanding math, statistics, and frameworks like PyTorch from first principles. Developers weighing how much to learn versus delegate to AI agents can follow this debate on daily.dev."}}]} ```