I've been doing web development for over fifteen years now – I started in PHP, did frontend, Python, Java, Rust, C++, and a handful of other things. I've written, shipped, maintained, and debugged a lot of code. And I love it. I love it so much I do it in my spare time and I teach it to others.
So what do I think about AI and software dev? I get asked this a lot, and since this is an AI focused course, this feels like a good time for me to share some thoughts on the future of the industry.
First of all, I don't think the trade is going away. I think the job of title of software developer is not going away any time soon. I think if you currently work in software dev, that there is a fruitful career still ahead of you.
I do think AI is going to change the industry a lot in the coming years, and already has. I think more and more code is going to be provided / dealt with by coding agents, and I think some of the things of the past that we worried about (like writing integration tests) just are going to get swallowed up and mostly solved by AI tools. I think the more that you as a software dev embrace this as opposed to fight it, it will bode well for you and for your career.
I believe those who learn to wield AI tools the best will rise to the top of the industry. These sorts of people will be able to meld "vibe coding" in with hand coding, knowing when to rely on an agent to generate code that an agent will do well with, and when to get in there and write it themselves when exploring areas that agents won't do as well in, but still likely with AI-assisted tools. These sorts of people will still take responsibility for all code they ship, written by AI or not. They will still be reliable, thoughtful, reviewed, and tested.
We've witnessed a cambrian explosion of progress in the AI tool front and it's tempting to assume continued exponential growth of progress (because that's how it's been going so far) but I invite you to keep pace with the innovation and to try to master each step. Who knows what tomorrow holds, but it can be paralyzing to focus too much on the future and not enough on what we can accomplish now.
It's exciting times, and I'm excited about AI. I am neither a maximalist nor a minimist when it comes to AI – I am trying to root myself in what can I do now and how can I use tools to accelerate myself and my team.
