Tech leads are the most valuable hires .
Managers typically are focused on strategy, people issues, and delegating work. The tech lead is the person who’s hands-on and "in the weeds", even when not writing much code themselves.
I’ve spent decades leading small and large projects - fleshing out every detail of the scope, driving the technical direction, brainstorming with my team on the “how”, and ensuring quality of the results.
The adjustment going from leading a team of humans to a team of agents didn't feel significantly different to me than going from one team of humans to a different one - you adjust your style to the team you have. Now, I can never fully “trust” my team of agents but they deliver results quickly and I don’t have to worry about hurting their feelings if I tell them to redo work.
This is why complaints from engineers about AI-generated code often miss the mark to me. It’s never been about whether the code is perfect or written exactly the way I would. To your point, it’s about whether it’s completed on time, meets certain quality standards, and achieves the business objectives.