Wherever I worked (and as long as it was up to me), the mindset and expectation was that a junior we hire will need to become a medior in max 2 years. Of course, we provided the right investment (environment, mentorship, coaching, learning budget). This also acted as a filter at hiring. This way the question was never "for today's tasks do we need a senior OR a junior".
About AI: Unless there's another breakthrough, AI is not getting significantly better. A junior with 2 years of proper training easily surpasses AI in judgment and arch design skills, etc. - and you will need seasoned engineers to make the calls and shepherd AI even. Where will those people come from if nobody is investing in juniors?
About AI: Unless there's another breakthrough, AI is not getting significantly better. A junior with 2 years of proper training easily surpasses AI in judgment and arch design skills, etc. - and you will need seasoned engineers to make the calls and shepherd AI even. Where will those people come from if nobody is investing in juniors?