I'm a big Star Wars fan. I can't wait to see these movies for the what is probably at least the sixth time with my son.
In Star Wars, both the Jedi (the good guys) and the Sith (the baddies) use lightsabers and the "force" to fight. The force is something a bit abstract. It can move objects, cloud judgment or save a life, but it still depends on who is using it and why. It's not something the Jedi can create or summon. Even their definition of the force is a bit weird:
The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.
Allow me to stretch this a bit and say that accessibility is similar. It's not something you can just summon or cast as a spell over your product to make it accessible.
You cannot run a checker, fix a few warnings and assume the experience works. Tools can help you spot some of the problems. They can point at missing form labels, weak colour contrast, if you skipped any headings or if buttons have names that make no sense.
Tools give you clues and those clues matter.
But clues are not judgment. A tool can tell you if a form field has a label, but it can't tell you whether the error message helps someone recover. A tool can warn you about focus, but can't decide whether the focus order matches how someone needs to move through that task.
That part still belongs to you.
You still need to tab through the flow and listen with a screen reader. You still need to ask what happens when someone gets stuck, moves slowly or uses the interface in a way you didn't expect.
AI is a tool too.
A lot of companies are experimenting with it right now, which is fine. Experiment. Learn where it helps. Let it speed up a prototype, find a pattern or point you toward something worth checking.
But do not confuse that with the work.
The work is deciding what matters. It's testing the flow. It's noticing when a technically valid answer is still the wrong answer.
The work is taking responsibility for the experience you ship.
AI can help you move faster. It can give you clues. But it's up to you to read them.