Skills AI Cannot Develop for the Next Generation of Developers: Beware “Fundamentals Debt”

An analysis by the O'Reilly learning platform of usage data in the UK from Q1 2025 to Q1 2026 found that engagement with programming fundamentals content fell by 73%, while content on AI and machine learning grew by 51%, and natural language processing by 117%. The article calls the risk of developers relying too heavily on AI and losing foundational engineering judgment “fundamentals debt,” and argues that skills such as testing, debugging, code review, architecture, and security will become even more important as AI-generated code increases.