I see AI evolving fast. I see it writing 100% of the code in some cases. But here’s the thing. From what I experience every single day, you still need someone who actually understands what’s going on.
AI is powerful, but it still needs a driver
Every day I run into situations where AI produces something weird. It goes in circles, can’t solve a problem, or builds something that looks right but isn’t. You need a person who can step in, recognize what’s wrong, and push things in the right direction. AI will get better, sure. But right now, it has its moments.
This probably isn’t news to anyone: one good developer with AI can now do the work of an entire team. Companies will take advantage of that. Why wouldn’t they?
From what I see, AI is not taking our jobs. It’s increasing the workload.
Here’s what I actually observe every day. A lot of people, myself included, are doing more than before. More code, more features, faster deployments. We may be writing less code ourselves, but with the right knowledge, we can steer AI to produce exactly what we need. What used to take weeks or months now takes days.
Everyone can now build projects faster, with fewer people, and less money. What changed in my world is this: I have a long list of ideas I never had time to execute. Now I can throw them at AI and build out a full business plan, competitive analysis, infrastructure design, task breakdown, backend, frontend, MVP. I can even work on multiple apps at the same time. People can finally start projects they would have never had the time to begin otherwise.
I have more work now than I did before AI. Sure, maybe this changes someday. It’s hard to say. But right now, the amount of work has gone up, not down. And I feel like this is the moment to go all in.
What if AI creates more demand for developers?
People keep saying AI will take programmers’ jobs. But what if it does the opposite?
Yes, each project will need fewer developers. But at the same time, way more projects will get built. More startups, more side projects turning into real businesses, more ideas finally seeing the light of day. Fewer people per project, but the sheer volume of new projects could more than make up for it.
More projects will be created. Some will survive, some won’t. That’s how it has always been. The difference is the scale. The barrier to entry is lower, so more people will try, more things will get built, and the whole cycle of creation and failure will play out faster and bigger than before.
Strange times
I wonder if, and when, AI will be able to build and maintain entire projects on its own. Maybe one day the main programming language will just be human language, and AI will figure out the best way to make it all work under the hood.
We’re not there yet. But it’s getting interesting.