The artist and the writer have been living in fear of AI taking over their jobs for years. Now, it’s the developer’s turn.
As Gen AI models start excelling at coding, there is a chance it takes over coding all together and soon. And according to AIM, “95% of it”.
Recently, Anthropic chief Dario Amodei said AI will write 90% of code in the next six months. As per Y Combinator partner Jared Friedman, a quarter of the W25 startup batch have AI generated code for 95% of their codebases. If this isn’t giving developers heebie-jeebies, I don’t know what will. Take it from a writer who is already in a nail-biting career situation, it’s time to rethink your career options.
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Last year, Amazon Cloud’s CEO caused a storm, when he predicted the end of coding in the next two years. When You.com was funded last year, it predicted that AI agents will outnumber humans in 2025. Already social media platform TikTok is laying off hundreds of employees from its global workforce, including a large number of staff in Malaysia, as it shifts focus towards a greater use of artificial intelligence in content moderation.
As per AIM, modern generative AI coding tools can integrate many open-source LLMs instead of a traditional IDE like VS Code, making it handy for several AI developers. IDE or integrated development environment is a code editor that allows developers to write, test, and debug code. If all IDEs become AI assisted, will there even be a need to learn coding?
Claude Artifacts is already posing a threat to no-code and low-code app builder platforms such as AppMySite, Builder.ai, Flutter, and React Native.
“Claude Artifacts are insane. I cannot believe how good the product is. You can ask it to build most little internal tools in minutes (at least, the UI) and customise further via code. Feels like a superpower for semi-technical people.” — X user
An X user recently posted, “Claude Artifacts are insane. I cannot believe how good the product is. You can ask it to build most little internal tools in minutes (at least, the UI) and customise further via code. Feels like a superpower for semi-technical people.”
This means, users can have their own private apps that function exactly the way they want. No need to go to the app store anymore. This could be the beginning of an era where software comes into the hands of the people. Just regular people creating software artifacts, sharing them on social media with a link, an open source for tailor made code. Not even prompt engineers are required. Other than just giving prompts, users can now also share previously made websites or apps, and Claude can generate an exact replica. ?Already, the internet is full of apps built with Claude Artifacts, like the Daily Calorie Expenditure, Rubik’s Cube Simulator, Reddit Thread Analyzer, Self-Playing Snake Game, and Drum Pad.
Code Writer to Code Reviewer: Gen AI dominates quality engineering trends right now
As per a survey by OutSystems and KPMG, the IT sector has been adopting AI in software development lifecycle (SDLC) steadily with testing, quality assurance, and security vulnerability detection the most widely adopted use cases. In fact, 75% of software executives have seen up to a 50% reduction in development time by implementing AI and automation.
Early adopters are looking to raise their use of AI in other stages of the SDLC, such as user interface design, code generation, DevOps optimization, and application maintenance. This shows that AI will play a central role in driving innovation and competitive advantage in the software industry.
“Right now, the developer’s role is shifting from code writer to code reviewer,” — Rodrigo Coutinho, Co-founder and AI Project Manager at OutSystems
“AI is redefining the impossible,” said Paulo Rosado, CEO and founder at OutSystems. “The latest AI disruptions have brought us the potential to compress these development timelines into even shorter and faster projects. With AI, historically impossible transformation projects are not only possible but easier, cheaper, and faster to accomplish.”
“The latest AI disruptions have brought us the potential to compress these development timelines into even shorter and faster projects. With AI, historically impossible transformation projects are not only possible but easier, cheaper, and faster to accomplish.” — Paulo Rosado, CEO and founder at OutSystems
“Right now, the developer’s role is shifting from code writer to code reviewer,” said Rodrigo Coutinho, Co-founder and AI Project Manager at OutSystems. “Large language models (LLMs) are a big help, but they still make mistakes. But as these models evolve, and trust in the resulting code improves, the developer’s role will be more akin to that of an orchestrator and acceptance tester of AI-generated outputs.”
What of Orphan Code & Hallucinations?
Despite being a nascent technology a couple of years ago, this report found that trust in the quality of AI-generated code has grown substantially, because implementation of AI does improve software quality, resulting in enhanced decision-making, and increased efficiency in software testing and quality assurance.
But trust doesn’t mean there is no risk awareness surrounding tech debt in the form of orphan code and hallucinations, a lack of context for an organization’s specific coding needs, and scalability concerns. With strategy baked into AI in SDLC processes, there is an expectation to experience a higher quality of applications, with fewer bugs and improved performance.
Despite data privacy and security concerns, the AI opportunity is undeniably huge. Still its wider adoption in other areas of the SDLC beyond software testing and vulnerability detection still face some barriers. Apart from data privacy and security concerns, these include regulatory and compliance challenges. Executives also cite difficulties integrating generative AI into existing workflows as the primary barrier to adoption.
“While there will be challenges, those with effective change management initiatives will reskill and upskill their workforces, leading to AI and jobs evolving in tandem.” — Michael Harper, Managing Director at KPMG US
“There’s a lot of speculation on what will change with the rise of GenAI,” said Michael Harper, Managing Director at KPMG US. “While there will be challenges, those with effective change management initiatives will reskill and upskill their workforces, leading to AI and jobs evolving in tandem.”
A New Kinda Developer
GenAI is leading to higher investments, but risks concerning the reliability of AI-generated code persist, though approaches like user acceptance testing, unit testing, and regression testing can help.
“It’s up to the developer working with AI to guarantee the quality of the deliverables, but this becomes way more efficient with AI,” said Coutinho. “AI is, in fact, a great partner in creating tests in synthetic data.”
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Also, apart from other oft-cited concerns like limited availability of skilled personnel and difficulties integrating GenAI into existing tech stacks and workflows, are fears of job losses. There are claims that certain roles will be eliminated by AI. In the longer term, AI may well create more jobs than it displaces, resulting in a new type of developer, equipped with specialized AI skill sets. But till then, it will strike fear into the heart of the developer, even as a new type of developer forges itself towards a new era of coding.
