6 Engineering Skills That AI Won't Replace

AI tools can generate engineering artifacts faster than ever, but fast implementation does not guarantee that you are solving the right problem or producing a trustworthy result. Starting with an AI-generated inverted pendulum model in Simscape™ and a controller model in Simulink®, you will explore why engineering judgment remains essential even when answers are inexpensive and implementation is nearly instant. Learn six durable skills that can help you direct AI tools and evaluate their output. Problem framing helps you define the task before choosing a solution. Scoping and tradeoffs help you account for constraints such as cost, schedule, power, weight, and manufacturability. Physical intuition gives you a way to recognize when a proposed answer does not make sense, while systems thinking helps you understand how a decision about one component can affect the behavior of the complete system. You will also learn why modeling judgment involves more than creating a model. You must decide what information belongs in the model, which assumptions are reasonable, and what level of fidelity is appropriate for your purpose. Finally, established engineering workflows provide the structure needed to define requirements, break complex problems into manageable pieces, model and test a system, and verify that the deployed result matches what you built. Together, these skills help you decide what to build, how to build it, and whether the result is correct. For a deeper discussion, watch or listen to the related podcast with Pete Martin, director of engineering at Quanser, and explore additional MATLAB Tech Talk content on mathworks.com. Related resources: - Listen to the Durable Engineering Skills podcast: https://youtu.be/pyNM1ScZj-8?si=cpxtYxdsR5yW2aOa - Getting Started Teaching with MATLAB and Simulink: https://bit.ly/3ERCnnu -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Get a free product trial: https://goo.gl/ZHFb5u Learn more about MATLAB: https://goo.gl/8QV7ZZ Learn more about Simulink: https://goo.gl/nqnbLe See what's new in MATLAB and Simulink: https://goo.gl/pgGtod © 2026 The MathWorks, Inc. MATLAB and Simulink are registered trademarks of The MathWorks, Inc. See www.mathworks.com/trademarks for a list of additional trademarks. Other product or brand names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.