Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming how we design electronics, but it’s not here to replace engineers. It’s here to create a new kind of engineer, one who builds smarter, faster, and with more vision than ever before.

Why the Future of Electronics Design Is a Partnership, Not a Takeover

In the past decade, AI has revolutionized how we use electronics—but not nearly enough how we create them. While CAD tools, PCB autorouters, and simulation software have evolved, the process of designing an embedded system is still, for the most part, an exercise in meticulous human effort. That’s about to change.
We are entering an era where electronics won’t just be built by engineers. They will be co-designed by machines.

From Fixed Designs to Adaptive Hardware

Imagine starting a project by simply describing your end goal: “I need a wearable device that can monitor hydration levels, communicate wirelessly, and run for a week on a coin cell.”

Instead of opening KiCad or Altium, you upload your functional requirements into an AI-driven design engine. This AI would:
 
  • Select components based on power, cost, and availability.
  • Draft schematics with verified reference designs.
  • Route a PCB optimized for manufacturability and thermal performance.
  • Simulate the design, auto-tuning antenna geometry or sensor placement.

All before you’ve written a single line of firmware. It’s tempting to see this as the point where AI replaces engineers. But the truth is—it won’t.

    Will artificial intelligence (AI) replace engineers?

    AI as a Tool, Not a Replacement

    AI has a long road ahead before it can truly replace the hard-earned instincts of a seasoned engineer. Real-world design isn’t just about what “works on paper.” It’s about knowing that the capacitor spec looks fine in theory but will drift out of tolerance at high humidity. It’s about hearing a high-pitched whine from a prototype and immediately suspecting a switching regulator’s inductor. An AI might flag a noise issue—it might even suggest filtering options—but it won’t know that a particular inductor is prone to micro-cracks after thermal cycling in automotive environments unless a human has already taught it.

    The truth? AI won’t replace engineers; it will change them. With so much of the tedious, time-consuming work automated, engineers can focus on higher-level problem-solving, innovation, and system integration.

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    A Real Example

    Picture an embedded engineer designing a smart agricultural sensor node. Traditionally, they would:
     
    1. Spend hours selecting a microcontroller.
    2. Manually calculate battery life for different transmission intervals.
    3. Comb through datasheets to find a compatible LoRa module.

    With AI, all of this could be done in minutes. The AI could recommend three MCU options, each with power estimates, cost breakdowns, and supplier availability. But here’s the catch. The engineer still decides which one to use, knowing that in this deployment, temperatures will hit 45°C in summer, and this module’s crystal oscillator is known to drift under heat.

    That’s judgment. That’s experience. And AI can’t fabricate that out of thin air.

    Electronics as Evolving Organisms

    If we zoom out, the most radical future is electronics that don’t just adapt in software, but in hardware over time. With printed electronics, modular designs, and self-reconfiguring architectures like FPGAs, we could see devices that physically change their circuitry to optimize performance.

    A field-deployed robot might reconfigure its motor drivers for efficiency when battery levels are low, then re-route circuitry for peak torque when climbing a slope.

    And yes—AI will help enable this. But someone still has to define the mission, anticipate the risks, and validate the design under real-world constraints.

    The Takeaway

    The future of electronics is not just smart devices: it’s smart design. We’re headed toward an age where AI handles the grind work, and engineers focus on the artistry and problem-solving that machines can’t touch. The best engineers in this new era won’t be the ones who can manually route every trace or memorize every register address. They’ll be the ones who know how to wield AI like a scalpel, cutting away the grunt work to reveal the brilliance underneath.

    AI will be our co-pilot. But the human engineer will always be in the captain’s seat.