I could see both of those becoming somewhat obsolete.

But there are so many other roles in tech that don’t require coding that wouldn’t be as simple. Project managers, product owners, and user experience designers to name a few.

I sort of feel like project management and UX design is almost easier to automate?

Project management is mostly communication and client/stakeholder relationships. A lot of their job already automated.

Same with UX design. A lot of it already is automated. But a good UX designer works with clients/stakeholders to really understand their needs and translate their business objectives into a quality product.

Isn’t that the same for a good software dev though? Need to know the client needs and wider context etc

But the code writing can probably be automated. So the dev won’t have anything to do.

For example, I am a product owner. Right now I tell my devs what I want them to build, and I communicate that to them in the form of User Stories.

But what if I can just give my User Stories to ChatXPT and it produces the final product? Then I don’t need devs at all.

You can already use chat AIs to generate small code snippets. It’s just a matter of time until it can generate a full product based on a few specs that we give it.

But you’d still need someone putting the real world problems into logic the chat gpt can understand

That’s what the product owner does.

Or maybe you’re right, you might need one person who works directly with the AI. But in that case you’ve taken an entire dev team of 4-6 engineers and replaced it with one AI liaison.

Neither of these jobs will go away any time soon. What will change is the use of AI assist tools to speed up work and improve performance and quality.

For example, when I first started doing software development 35 years ago I had to do a lot more manual work. There were no automated testing tools, syntax hints and code suggestions. As a result, code would have undetected bugs that could be difficult to figure out. Today, I have AI assist programs that let me know if my code might have a potential problem and it can make suggestions on improving a section of code. It isn't always right though but it helps by presenting alternatives.

Yeh true! Just software dev isn’t so much about writing code, but about all the human elements, real world problem solving etc - writing the code once you’ve figured that out is the easy bit. So that’s why I don’t think that side is much different to project managers etc

Yes this is what it seems to me too working in the field - more of a ‘coding assist’ rather than being able to do the whole job itself. And as we know from history, greater efficiency doesn’t usually lead to a loss of jobs, just ever increasing productivity

Maybe. Tbh we’re all fucked if AI becomes that good at our jobs.

Haha potentially

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Think about this: did compilers made programmers obsolete? After all, they write all of the assembly!

Good point!

Excuse me, but this is a great joke. You for sure don't know what your devs do.

I don’t what kind of devs you have. But mine don’t really solve business problems. I solve them, and they build what I tell them to.

I don't mean to discuss, but it'd be good if you can ponder the following: they give you a technical solution to help you solve your business problem. You don't tell them what to build, because you probably don't know much about their discipline, what you tell them is what you need to be solved. You're undermining the whole process they probably do.

Give it a thought if you can.

I guess that’s a fair point. Except that I was a developer as well. So I know exactly what they’re building because I could build it myself if I had their role.

That’s probably not how it is for most POs. But in my case it is.

Good, if you were a dev less than 5 years ago, maybe you could, otherwise unsure. Don't forget the real job they do then, which isn't just coding senseless.

It was less than 5 years ago.

I agree that most devs probably aren’t senseless coders. But some are.

I knew this what product owners think of devs!

If you want a job now, as in right now, software development is the best place to start. If you want a job soon that leads to other branches like AI, machine learning, cybersecurity, hell maybe even data science, software development is still the way to go.

If you know of an opportunity you will be able to get a data science job at Facebook or Google, then I would go with that. I guess my point is that it depends what your situation is, but software development has the most potential now.

Software was INHERENTLY simpler 35 years ago, modern tech and tools just means software features & complexity fills the void and does more , and I would argue software today is less reliable and less durable than it was back then...

I agree AI is a productivity tool for most developers, but software is being commoditized with SaaS so in the future AI will just be used to stitch together SaaS and a lot fewer developers will be needed to craft novel system s

Seems like if you're a good senior programmer you will be safe near term (5-10 years). If you're getting into it, I would worry that companies might perpetually stagnate hiring or downsize due to the efficiency of ChatGPT like solutions.

It's going to get more way competitive than it already is imo.