In an age where pre-programmed routines, AIs, algorithms, heuristics and other related buzzwords reached the potential to replace up to ninety percent of the work performed by humans, every profession tried their best to stay relevant against the necessary evil of automation.
Even though a healthy paranoia against relying too much on machines to do everyone's jobs prevented them from becoming too dominant, as long as they remained a more attractive option, they would simply keep taking over.
Mech designers liked to regard their noble profession as one that required both art and science to reach its full potential. Imagination, creativity, passion and love all added meaning to their products and distinguished them from automatically generated designs at the press of a button.
At least that was what they aspired to achieve.