Manual vs. CNC machining as an analogy for manual vs. AI coding

They're not at all similar. CNC machining is about designing and developing once, and then cranking out hundreds, thousands, or millions of identical widgets having consistent quality.

AI coding is not that. At all.

.. if CNC machining had much higher failure rate than manual, and had a tendency to introduce subtle defects which required tedious manual review of all outputs.

People don't look down at AI coding because it needs new skills, they look down at it because even with those skills, it's still only as good as junior-level engineer at most.