Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt with AI: Will AI Replace Programmers?

Or Can There Be a Harmonious Coexistence?

AI’s impact on software development jobs

Bill Gates challenged OpenAI’s GPT to ace a college-level biology course, which it did, it got an A.

It was then challenged to respond to the prompt ‘What do you say to a father with a sick child?’

After witnessing the impressive results, Bill Gates said, “I knew I had just seen the most important advance in technology since the graphical user interface.”

AI will have an impact on development jobs.

But to answer the question, ‘Will AI replace software engineers?”

The answer is, “No.”

Here’s why.

Why AI won’t replace programmers.

Anyone who has been in the IT industry for less than 5 years will tell you it’s constantly changing.

Anyone who has been in the IT industry for more than 5 years will tell you the pace of these changes is accelerating.

New tools and innovations are being introduced all the time.

Software engineers need to be constant learners to stay current with the latest trends.

But this has always been true, whether you’re 3 years or 30 years into your career in tech.

Software developers are known to salivate when a new technology comes along.

They’re deliriously excited to dive in.

It’s like getting a new toy—a new puzzle to figure out.

Technologies such as:

• Mobile Application Development
• Blockchain
• Cloud Computing
• Augmented Reality (hello Pokémon Go)

These technologies are the brainchildren of humans.

The development of all the above, and more, required collaboration, creativity, innovative thinking, intuition, assessing a problem and developing the best solution, or identifying an opportunity and running with it.

Although AI is probably the most transformative technology to come along, and it’s advancing at lightning speed, AI can’t do any of this.

AI can offer additional information, but it can’t replace:

• Human judgement
• The broader understanding of the user’s problem
• Predicting a solution’s potential impact or future issues
• Identifying possible regressions
• Suggesting new features to a system

AI won’t ask the “What ifs?”

It’ll just do what it was instructed to do based on the data it is trained on.

And currently that data can be biased, incomplete, incorrect, and outdated.

Since it can’t understand the full context of an issue, it can’t design an entire solution to address a problem.

Part of the SDLC process is a code review. Who will review the AI’s code?

It still needs critiquing and supervision. Right?

Development involves a lot of science but there’s also an art to it, and AI can’t be creative.

And this is what’s happening right now with AI-written code.

How will AI make software development more efficient?

It can:

• Write those code snippets you can do in your sleep, so you can focus on the more complex aspects of a project.
• Expedite debugging.
• Find errors.
• Do mundane tasks such as writing documentation.
• Automate repetitive tasks like testing.
• Make suggestions to optimize code.
• Help developers learn new programming languages faster.
• Tirelessly monitor application performance.
• Help maintain software systems.

All these efficiencies improve the quality of code and expedite the delivery of the product.

Key Takeaways:

Will AI change the landscape of software engineering jobs. Yes.

Will it replace software engineers? No.

In fact, it’s predicted AI will create 97 million new jobs.

AI will be a very powerful tool in the software developer’s toolbox to help produce high quality, high performing, error free code in less time.

This will save time and money.

Stay current on the latest AI advancements.

Don’t get left behind.

Embrace AI and stay competitive.