Exclusive ex-Meta Engineering poll results: Almost no one is considering AI skills when hiring software engineers at their companies! Bootcamps pivoting to AI might be marketing a fictional gold rush so that they can sell you an expensive shovel that you don't need right now.

Yeah that wouldn't surprise me that recruiters look for AI as a sign you are staying up with the times, passionate about the latest and greatest, able to learn fast. I believe that can be demonstrated in more ways than just AI skills but it's a good point to mention. Like if it helps you stand out to a recruiter and is irrelevant to the interviews themselves then maybe it's worth it as a top of funnel strategy. Since posting, the outcomes are the same overall, but there is some really good discussion I'll try to summarize if I get the chance. The concensus is that an engineer needs to be a problem solver and not having strong general skills will not be compensated for by AI skills, which is the argument I was making as well - taking it a step farther that in a time limited learning environment, one would apply this by focusing more on general skills and minimally on AI (maybe for resume purposes for example, like you pointed out was effective).