The End of the Executor - Why Computer Vision Engineers Are Becoming Optional

The Signal Nobody Wants to Talk About#

At CES 2026, a company called Anisoptera launched Dragonfly—a no-code platform for building production-grade computer vision applications. It won a CES Picks Award. It’s enterprise-ready. And it explicitly markets itself as the solution to “the bottleneck of scarce AI talent.”

In other words: You are the bottleneck. And they built a product to remove you.

If you are a Computer Vision engineer, an MLOps specialist, or anyone building edge AI infrastructure, this is your wake-up call. Not because Dragonfly is uniquely dangerous, but because it is a public demonstration of a quiet trend: Specialized engineering roles are being productized.

In this breakdown (video above), I analyze the platform, the pricing model, and why your career is currently in the “blast radius.”

What Dragonfly Actually Is#

Dragonfly is a full-stack, no-code platform. Here is what makes it different from the usual “low-code” vaporware:

Hardware + Software Subscription: You don’t need cloud infrastructure. You don’t need Kubernetes. Dragonfly runs on-premise, at the edge, on their hardware. It is a turnkey solution.
Designed for Non-Technical Users: The target user is not a data scientist. It is a line-of-business manager—someone in logistics or retail who has a problem but no ML team.
Explicit About Replacing Talent: The press release doesn’t hide the intent. It frames “scarce AI talent” as the constraint. Translation: You are expensive, slow, and hard to manage. We are designing you out.

This is not a tool for engineers. This is a replacement for engineers.

Why This Is a Threat (Even If You Don’t Work in CV)#

If you are a Backend or NLP engineer, you might think this doesn’t apply to you. You would be wrong.

Dragonfly is a signal. It proves that you can take a highly specialized engineering discipline—one that used to require PhDs—and package it into a subscription. If they can do it for Computer Vision, they can do it for:

NLP: GPT wrappers are already replacing custom model training.
Data Pipelines: Tools like Fivetran are killing the “ETL Engineer” role.
Infrastructure: Platform engineering is being abstracted by AI agents.

The pattern is clear: Execution-level skills are being automated. Architectural skills are not.

The question is: Are you an executor, or are you an architect?

The Executor vs. Architect Divide#

Let me define the terms:

Executors are engineers whose job is to implement solutions. They:

Write the code
Tune the model
Deploy the container

Architects are engineers whose job is to design systems. They:

Evaluate build-vs-buy tradeoffs
Design hybrid architectures
Negotiate vendor contracts

Here is the brutal truth: Executors are in the blast radius. Architects are not. Dragonfly doesn’t replace the person who decides whether to use Dragonfly. It replaces the person who would have built the vision system manually.

What To Do About It (The Field CTO Framework)#

If you are feeling uncomfortable, good. That means you are paying attention. Here is the framework I teach in The Private Order:

1. Stop Learning Tools. Start Learning Systems. Stop chasing certifications in YOLO or PyTorch. Those are execution skills. Instead, learn how to evaluate vendor platforms, calculate TCO (Total Cost of Ownership), and design hybrid systems. These skills require judgment, not just syntax.

2. Learn to Speak Business. Dragonfly is sold to managers because it speaks their language: ROI and Time-to-Deployment. If you can’t explain why your custom Python script is better than a $5k/month tool in terms of business risk, you lose.

3. Become a “Field CTO.” A Field CTO doesn’t write code. They deliver verdicts. They evaluate solutions (Dragonfly vs. Custom), design the architecture, and make the final call. This role is AI-proof because it carries accountability.

The Verdict#

Dragonfly is not the problem. It is the signal. The engineers who survive are the ones who move up the stack—from execution to architecture.

The full tactical breakdown is in the video above.

SIGNAL & INTEL#

Discussion: Are you seeing this trend in your sector? Deploy your verdict in the YouTube comments.
The Order: Stop being a grunt. Become an Architect. Join The Private Order.