Will AI replace software engineers?
Actual programming skills are losing value as companies increasingly rely on AI, leading to silent firings, lost freelance projects, and a lack of junior roles. This disruption leaves developers feeling obsolete and makes students hesitate to study computer science, shifting industry favor toward product leads with people skills.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- It is not one crowd: 2 people on Reddit and 1 on Hacker News ran into the same thing.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Transitioning into technical lead or product-focused roles to act as the human guiding AI agents.Did this help you?
- 2Focusing on high-value human domains like organizational consensus, UX intuition, performance, testing, observability, and cross-functional hardware/software integration.Did this help you?
- 3Learning AI usage as a core skill to direct AI agents and ship software faster.Did this help you?
- 4Learning additional specialized skills beyond pure software development.Did this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Been recently thinking about this more and more: When the need for a human in the design loop ceases?”source ↗
“Just thinking because I see more and more examples of software developers ignoring this and saying "humans still have a place in guiding the agents and designing the architecture". I think (businesswise) the need for actual software programmer skills is 90% out in a few years I think, and product lead etc people will be favored more as they have more people skills.”source ↗
“it was a good run.”source ↗
“But recently the news around computer science has been especially negative. Layoffs, AI disruption, lack of junior roles, etc.”source ↗
“It feels a lot like nobody cares about someone who hss my skills anymore, feels like they dont care and will just use AI”source ↗
“I am finishing high school in about 4 months so i have till then to decide what i want to study in uni”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 7Where can I find real-world company AI policies and best practices?
- 19Is teaching still a realistic option for me?
- 3What is my job now that AI does half of it?
- 5Should I switch to the new CPA program or rush the old one?
- 3What programming jobs are safe from AI?
- 29Will AI replace software developers and tech jobs?