The Sweet Spot Is 30% AI, 70% Human

#ai

Hey it's Buono. I switched careers to IT engineering at 40. Wanted to use tech to help the people around me. And at first? It was genuinely fun.

But lately it's become painfully boring. And the reason is obvious.

AI ruined it.

AI Took the Part I Actually Loved

Here's the thing about me — I love the process of building. That's why I got into electronics, why I built websites and apps from scratch, why I made animation videos for my gadget projects. All of it was about the journey, not the destination.

AI took almost all of that away.

Specs, architecture, infrastructure, implementation, testing — it's all AI now. I haven't written a single line of code in two years. Not exaggerating. Literally zero lines.

I'd estimate AI can handle about 90% of the entire app development process at this point. What's left for humans? Planning, requirements, some design tweaks. That's it.

For someone who lives for the process, this is miserable.

That heavy feeling I'd been carrying around for months — "why isn't this fun anymore?" — this was the answer.

Don't get me wrong. My original reason for getting into IT — helping people through technology — hasn't changed. I still want to do that. But you don't need decades of hands-on engineering experience for that anymore. The craft part is gone.

The career I was so excited about lost its shine.

So What's the Right Balance?

I've been thinking about this a lot. And I landed on something that feels right: 30% AI, 70% human.

That ratio means there's still enough human involvement to enjoy the process. But there's also enough AI to feel things gradually getting easier and more efficient over time. That sense of progress matters — it's the same energy that powered entire economic booms.

Let me map out why the extremes don't work:

100% human (like farming) — Still exists, still valuable. But without any AI involvement, you miss that feeling of your workflow slowly improving. That gets heavy over time.

50/50 or 70% AI — Feels okay today, but give it a couple years and AI will eat the rest. You end up right back where IT is now.

30% AI, 70% human — Enough process to stay engaged. Enough AI to keep improving. And because AI's share is still small, this ratio actually has staying power.

Where Do You Even Find a 30/70 Job?

Fair question. I don't have a complete map of every industry's AI ratio. Still figuring it out myself.

But I recently noticed something. Motion graphics — which I've been deep into lately — hits this ratio almost perfectly.

The planning, overall structure, asset creation, and motion work? That's all human. But AI helps with things like drafting initial assets, generating narration, writing helper scripts, and creating expressions (code that controls motion). That's roughly 30% AI, 70% me.

I didn't plan for this ratio. I just noticed it after I was already hooked. Which kind of proves the point — this balance is where the fun is.

Digital Content Creation Might Be the Move

Zooming out a bit, I think digital content creation in general lands close to this sweet spot. The "digital" part is key — traditional analog work like hand-drawn animation would push the AI ratio way lower.

The point is: if you zoom in and actually examine the work you enjoy, you might find pockets where this 30/70 balance already exists. You just haven't named it yet.

Go look for yours.

Catch you later ✌️