Will AI Take My Job?

"Aren't you afraid AI will make software developers redundant?" or "Do you fear losing your job to AI?" people often ask me nowadays. Not realizing that if the dystopian AI horror stories for the future come true, everyone will lose their job to AI.

But okay, let’s focus on software developers. I’ve actually been asked this question before, long ago, when people thought Eliza was as sophisticated as AI was going to be. In the early 00s, there was this product called Oracle Designer/2000. With it, software designers could model software, push a button and generate an (Oracle Forms) application. Finally, software developers (“expensive”, “nerdy”, “slow”) weren’t needed to create applications anymore. Or at least, that was the promise. In practice, clients and users weren’t all that happy with the prefabricated user experience, requiring many manual adjustments to the code. Which I, as a software developer, was (somewhat) happy to make.

Something similar happened about 10 years ago, with the rise of low-code platforms like Mendix and OutSystems. I’m convinced there are perfectly good applications for those platforms. But I had colleagues at the time who were convinced this would be the end of the software developer. No need for those pesky nerds who will always tell you it will take a lot of time, or that it’s even impossible what you’re asking. Well, I’m still here, I’m still developing software, and I’ll still give you an honest answer if you ask how long it’s going to take.

And then, AI came. Everything’s different now. AI will do the coding for you, better than you do it yourself. And sure, I’m happy to use AI when I’m coding. Asking questions about obscure APIs, asking for help if I’m using an unfamiliar programming language; even doing some vibe-coding if I’m too lazy to quickly build some tool or script or application.

So will I lose my job this time around? Will AI be able to build and maintain entire applications and application landscapes just by feeding it the right prompts? I think we’re not there yet any time soon. But what I do think is that people will use AI’s promise for the future as an opportunity to finally get rid of the pesky programmer.

Just the other day I read a post saying that “1-week sprints can now become the standard” because AI makes development go so much faster. As if the actual coding is causing the actual delays. You also read about junior developers unable to find jobs anymore, because AI can code as well as a junior developer. As if junior developers do nothing but code.

I will not lose my job to AI, not today. But I might well lose it to the promise of AI.