A social media user has sparked debate by claiming that software engineers will soon be jobless. The post comes amid growing concerns about artificial intelligence (AI) automating routine coding tasks.
“Software engineer as a career is coming to a close. It may be 5 years, or it may be 10, but we can all feel it, the end is beginning. May we go out in glory, joy, and celebration for the end of a wonderful industry. We’ll have a lot of fun in these last few years,” the user wrote on Twitter (now X).
The viral post, garnering 1.6 million views, has received mixed responses from social media users.
One of them wrote, “It’s evolving, not dying. Just as transportation evolved from river barges to rail to trucking to air (and river barges didn’t die completely). The demand for great software will rise as the ease of producing it increases.”
“Five years is such a kind gesture, as we look off the bow at the iceberg that is obviously much, much closer than that,” wrote another.
“You guys have been saying this for over 3 years now,” reacted another.
“If you gave a farmer in the 1800s a tractor, would they say farming is over?” asked one of them.
Another user commented, “Automation kills low-leverage thinking. So, the builders who can reason, design & own outcomes will definitely be fine.”
“I don’t think software engineering is “ending.” What’s ending is the illusion of infinite demand for average skills. There will be a messy transition where a lot of work gets automated, things break, quality drops, and people get frustrated,” wrote one user.
“The ones who stay curious, keep updating their skills, and actually analyse what’s failing (instead of doomposting) will be the ones in the strongest position after the correction. The rest will burn out,” the user added.
Research cited by the San Francisco Standard also echoes similar trends. New-graduate recruitment at the 15 biggest tech companies has declined by more than half since 2019. Companies now prefer experienced staff and rely more on AI tools.
At the same time, a World Economic Forum report states that 40% of employers expect to reduce jobs where AI can automate work. But, it also predicts 78 million new jobs will be created globally by 2030.
According to AnChain.AI CEO Victor Chang, learning AI is not just how to type prompts into an AI chatbot. Workers should understand how these systems make decisions, take actions, raise alerts and follow rules, he wrote in a Forbes article.
He also encouraged leaders to help their teams improve human skills. Judgement, ethics, communication, and strategic thinking are the qualities that cannot be easily automated.
Another key idea is to use AI as a “force multiplier”, Chang wrote. Employees should learn how AI tools can enhance accuracy, speed, and problem-solving abilities. The company can become stronger through the smart use of technology.
Ultimately, everyone must be willing to accept continuous reinvention. In a world that keeps changing, “standing still equals decline”, he wrote on Forbes.