A separated component does not necessarily mean a microservice. It could be its own process, its own module, or even just its own function, which is fine. But microservices bring their own problems.

Well yea... but the big con of microservices is still a thing: unexpected interactions

But some of that could be mitigated I guess.

> AI has also changed the dynamics around this. Splitting things into smaller components now has a dev advantage because the AI program better with smaller scope

This is not AI specific and nothing new and also precisely why microservices are a good solution to some problems: They reduce a teams cognitive load (if architected properly, caveats, team topologies, etc, etc)