First AI Software Engineers
You may have heard about that “First AI Software Engineers” and that “Superhuman AI Software Engineers”. Hence the rumors of the demise of the software engineering role.
Well, all these have been greatly exaggerated.
It will actually follow Jevons Paradox: Technological improvements or efficiency gains in resource use, lead to an overall increase in consumption of that resource, rather than a decrease.
AI will change how Software Engineers work, but will not eliminate the role. The role will evolve, work patterns will change, and type of work will also change. But more Software Engineers will be needed.
Today: AI augmenting existing work patterns and task, within boundaries. Mostly only code gen that make coding works more productive, while most work of coding is still done as it was.
In the Mid Term: AI transforms the work pattern, pushing the boundaries. Software Engineers will build software “in english”, prompting, no longer writing code as we do it today. Expressing the context carefully in a crafted natural language prompts on what to build. Break down complex problems into smaller well defined task, identify relevant constraints and information. Continuously review and refine the AI results
In the Long Term: AI will break boundaries, beyond transforming work patterns, it also redefines types of work we do. The next gen software to build would be “AI-Empowered Software”. A software that can learn and adapt itself in real time based on inputs or any conditions. Pervasive AI software that learns and adapt itself. In this era, all Software Engineers should also have AI and ML knowledge and skillsets. All roles in Software Engineering will have these knowledge and skillset, not only Data Scientists, or AI/ML Engineers as we know it today.
Even with all these advancements in AI, to be able to effectively prompting to AI, validate AI results, Software Engineers should know what “good” looks like. That means solid understanding of foundational engineering skills and domaine expertise.
“To fully replace Software Engineers with AI, ‘customers would need to accurately define what they want’. So, Software Engineers role are safe.” 😃 It sounds like a joke, but it is true.
So, don’t be afraid to loose jobs if you are a Software Engineers or taking Computer Science studies. It is just the way of work and type of work that will evolve. And actually Computer Science grads that will actually push the advancements of AI. Other professions or majors that shoukd worry more.
Main ideas here I learned from the vision of Gartner Analysts; Philip Walsh, Gunjan Gupta, Helen Poitevin, Keith Mann, Dave Micko, Manjunath Bhat.
And I shared this in BUMN Fordigi event, on September 26, 2024, at Hotel Mulia Senayan, Jakarta, Indonesia.
Always, stay sharp to be able to split between Hype and Fundamentals, and act accordingly.
ai artificialintelligence softwareengineering coding genai generativeai
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