So how do you build competence in a world where AI is preached to be the most reasonable way to solve problems because it's supposed to be faster than humans?

Have a single human AI chef. Everyone else has to write an engineering statement and submit it to the AI chef. All that interaction is outside the codebase. Engineers will take turns - perhaps 1 month stints - being the AI chef.

I guarantee you'll spend less on tokens, have better documentation, better code, and most importantly more competent engineers.

That's like asking "how do you build competence in plowing a field with a horse in a world of tractors"