A panel discussion at the 2026 ESD Alliance Executive Outlook meeting, featuring Cindy Cui of ChipAgents, Wally Rhines of Silvaco, Shelly Henry of Moores Lab AI, Dave Kelf of Breker Verification Systems, Vince Wong of Verific, and Ann Wu of Silimate, addressed how AI will alter engineering jobs, design reliability, and industry economics. Cui stated that with GenAI, "human judgment of which options really matter becomes very critical," and that moving forward, "there are no boundaries for these functional groups anymore," requiring engineers to learn new demands quickly and leverage AI to direct agent solutions with trust. Rhines noted that the learning curve "may change in the short term, but it never changes in the long term," citing that "the cost per transistor continues to be on a curve as it always has been." Key takeaways from the discussion include that agentic AI will fundamentally change design and verification, requiring engineers to adapt; AI is a black box, so reliability requires external observability through sandboxing; and the concentration of profitability in a few companies will shift as agents become more customized and more fab capacity opens doors for new players.