In 2011, Lee et al. proposed the Use-Modify-Create (UMC) framework to describe staged progression of student competence. Since then, the UMC framework has become a widely adopted tool for scaffolding progression in computing education, especially for education in programming. The framework has been particularly successful in K–12 computing where it provides an incremental scaffold for students to progress from simple to more complex programming activities.

The rise of generative AI, however, has caused a massive, disruptive shift in competences, impacting UMC. In this paper, we examine that shift, quantifying the cognitive processes “lost to automation” in terms of BLOOM’s Taxonomy. If we do nothing, students may simply “outsource” all higher-level activities to AI and, as a result, use lower-level cognitive processes. Taking inspiration from a novel extension of the UMC framework and The Scientific Method itself, we plot a course forward for AI-empowered education that takes us, not down, but up the competence ladder towards, not lower-, but higher-level competences.