Hello there, are you software engineer? And you feel anxious right now? To be honest its completely natural. When we see artificial intelligence generating entire application in a seconds. The anxiety around the future of work is real.
For someone like me who has been working on this industry for about 8 years, right now I feel anxiety so much about my future work. And I about questioning “will AI take coding job?”, “Will AI replacing humans?”, “How many job AI will took over?”.
Will the company kick me out from the office and place AI for replacement? That is the 1 million dollar question.
Decreasing Demand on Freelance Due to AI Disruption
The Myth of the AI Takeover Everything
Sort answer yes, for the most part like coding and development AI can replace. But not for good developer. Here you need to understand the differences between programmer who just generates code with AI and the programmers who actually comprehends it.
Think of building a house. AI is like super machine, that can lay brick in lightning speed, can do plumbing, can do wire, anything. The person using AI without understanding is just like telling the machine and follow what ever machine suggest.
They might get the job done but they don’t understand like what kind foundation that can hold bricks within this specifications. The moment a storm hits, the house collapse.
AI Delete Database Without Knowing The Impact
The programmers that actually good they act like true architect. They know exactly why every brick is placed, why this foundation should like this, why we have to follow this specification to pair with this foundation and soon.
High Skilled Person Will Not Easily Get Replaced By AI
Many people imagine a programmer as someone who simply translate a flawless set of instructions into code. If that actually what you thinking, then congrats we have been replaced by now.
However, based on my experience a good software developer will not easily replace by AI in the current AI technology, although we have seen many tools can automate anything on the coding and incredible syntax in coding.
They still lack the real-world context required to build reliable, safe and useful product. Most developer who have been working know about this, and how dynamic it is movement in the team.
At least for now, I don’t know in future like 5 to 10 years from now.
What AI Cannot Replicate
As we know AI is very powerful tool that can predict the next line of code, if you ask logic to sort table, or to-do some computation most AI with current model will do a fantastic result.
The most valuable skill in tech are now not only writing code, rather than that is thinking skill and human touch:
- Human Empathy: AI does not understand human frustration. Designing intuitive user experiences requires a deep, empathetic understanding of how a real person will interact with a screen.
- Strategic Trade-offs: AI cannot take responsibility for a production system. It cannot weigh the business risks of rushing a feature against the technical debt it will cause.
- Translating Ambiguity: Yes AI can help give an idea of solution for the ambiguity but sometimes the solutions is not that personalize, and feel like template machine instead of dialog.
What Should We Do Next?
This is not an advise but this is just suggestion for you if you feeling anxiety about AI disruption.
- Believe in yourself: You have to believe in yourself first that you have ability that most AI cannot do. If you feel like most your ability can replace by AI then you have to start Upskill your ability.
- Focus on human touch: like I mention focus on the part that AI cannot simply replace, forget about small coding test like
leetcodeor any other coding testing platform. Start focus on communication and problem skill. - Use AI As a Partner: definitely you won’t able defeat AI, then join them and use them as tech partner, who can help you writing coding template and coding scaffolding but the decision is still on your hand.
- Become orchestrator: the coding in the past no longer the same. The “coder” of the past is evolving into an “orchestrator” rather than construction worker.
The most valuable tech professionals tomorrow
will be those who use AI as a tool to handle the busywork
freeing themselves up to focus on
strategy, human psychology,and creative innovationConclusion
Will AI take coding jobs? The short answer is depending on you position right now, but definitely AI will be changing the definition of the job. The rote, repetitive parts of programming are being commoditized, which is actually a massive win for the industry.
It frees humans up to do what humans do best: think critically, creatively, and empathetically.
The future of software doesn’t belong to humans fighting AI. It belongs to developers who adapt fast, think structurally, and use AI as a superpower rather than viewing it as a replacement