I’m so excited by AI. I’m a bit upset by AI. Oh…
AI will affect the tech industry.
I’m looking forward to the AI era of software engineering. I expect many changes, mostly to the way we interact with code. Other than that, my prediction is the bulk of challenges in software development, like building the right product, getting feedback from end users, solving actual business needs, will not undergo a drastic change. Sure, the name of the role “software engineer” might change, the responsibilities might change… but at the end of the day, only a small section of the job will change, only the interactions with code.
Note, I’m completely ignoring claims like Poolside’s claim that they will build and AI which will match end even surpass software engineers. I don’t deny this can/will happen, I’m ignoring it because I see it as too far in the future.
Note2, I’m also ignoring the very likely possibility that demand for software engineers might change. Instead, I’m making an assumption demand will not change a lot.
Speed, correctness, safety and more speed!
There are aspects of AI which are of little interest to me, like which AI company got a bigger series funding, why was the funding irrational, or why was it visionary.
My current interest with AI lies mostly in:
I know a company which exposes APIs for remote device management. Taking advantage of this would typically mean having their engineers integrate with this API. However, with AI, the company was able to just expose a chatbot, which understand plain human commands, like “restart the device in this location”. Absolutely no engineering effort needed to integrate with the API, just use the exposed functionality via the chatbot.
I know a backend engineer who hadn’t touched frontend code in years, but recently they “wrote” thousands of lines of frontned code in mere days. Done exclusively with an AI-powered IDE. Oh, this is so exciting.
I know a non-engineer who needed a plain Android app to show a timer. Using AI, he was able to generate code for an app which does exactly this. He did this over a weekend, with no previous Android coding knowledge. Now, he has a phone in his fitness center, which runs this app 24/7.
I do not feel threatened by this change (revolution?), on the contrary, I feel like the best is yet to come - this profession will evolve in interesting, challenging ways… mostly.
There is one part of the job that I do feel… afraid.
It’s writing. I just love writing, everything about it.
Expressing thoughts, conveying a message, condensing chaotic thoughts into succinct sentences. Not really related to coding, more about person-to-person communication. Writing code is a small part of the job, writing thoughts is a huge part.
After so many years (I’m deliberately not keeping count 🙈) in tech, I still enjoy:
My only concern with AI, LLMs in particular, is that writing thoughts will become obsolete. I mean not completely obsolete, but it will become crippled, irrelevant, and won’t be part of my daily work.
I don’t want that, I want to continue writing…
I’m expecting this new era with multiple layers of hope.
Hope that the aspects of the job which are truly enjoyable for me will not be diminished.
Hope that the aspects of the job which are repetitive will become automated to the next level.
Hope that expressing thoughts in written format will not become obsolete.