[UX Researcher] AI price hikes killing the hype? Could be huge for actual hiring

Honestly, all the AI doomer threads here crack me up a bit. Everyone's like "jobs gone, learn prompt engineering or die." But check those posts about AI companies raising model prices big time. Tbh, I think this pops the bubble in a good way for folks job hunting. I'm a UX researcher, 2 years in, testing tools with devs and users daily. Cheap AI led to so much rushed garbage - half-baked chatbots that nobody wants, devs gluing APIs together over a weekend thinking it's innovative. Quality tanked because it was too easy to fake progress. Now prices climb? Companies can't spam experiments anymore. They'll need humans who ship real, thoughtful software that doesn't suck. Reminds me of that book Sprint by Jake Knapp I just finished - it's all about running tight design sprints to test ideas fast without wasting cash. AI was skipping that step, now maybe teams hire again for skills like debugging messy systems or talking to actual users. Not just "throw more tokens at it." Not saying AI vanishes, but the low-effort wrapper apps? Dead. Fundamentals win: clean code, user focus, iteration. I've seen hiring managers (friends at a couple places) already grumbling about AI "solutions" failing in prod. Market's brutal, but this shift could mean less saturation from AI tourists. What worked for you when hype died down before? Pivot stories or just grinding through?