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Can AI Really Replace Dev Jobs? Let’s Talk About It

Harsh Suthar on December 30, 2024

So, the AI panic is real. Everywhere you go, someone’s crying, "AI is gonna take our jobs!" And if you’re in tech—especially if you’re a developer—...
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tqbit profile image
tq-bit

AI won't replace us. Yet

There's a certain push trying to automate tasks that the current workforce does manually. That's where investments go and will keep going, including the tech sector.

As the comments state, learning new tech helps. And you only need to look back in history to see how this will probably go.

When the industrial revolution happened in UK and suddenly steam engines were able to do a lot of the manufacturing labor much faster and better than humans, old jobs were lost. But somebody still needed to handle these novelle engines.

The best thing, in my eyes, you can do is to learn and handle the tool that's meant to replace us. Many of the devs I know already do that while others are reluctant. We'll see who wins

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harsh_suthar_5a9a14772609 profile image
Harsh Suthar

Totally agreed, if devs won't adapt with changes and not get to know these new technologies then it is game over for them. As mentioned even in my post and your comment, learning to handle the tool thats meant to replace us is very important now or us developers would be left behind in the dust 😅

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Dror Wayne

Whichever side of the debate you're on, there's one way you can get involved in AI for software and that's by participating in the #FineCodingChallenge - top prize is $400, second prize $100 AND all participants get a free month of Fine including UNLIMITED o1 and Claude 3.5 Sonnet access.

Full details here
What are you waiting for?

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BogdanSuchko

hello world
I do not agree that AI can only understand the context, write some separate function, or find an error, I have been studying Artificial Intelligence for 2 years now and I can say that it has improved a lot during this time, now there is Cursor, for those who do not know, this is an IDE based on vscode in which AI functions have been implemented and AI in this editor can really do a lot, just write, and he will make a full-fledged site, will help to set up and connect databases, API requests, I even did several of my projects like this and steaming without it, of course, there were a lot of mistakes, but I coped, the only thing that AI does not know how to do yet is debug the code, and so it is a very good thing, and not even a child's toy at all, with which you can only mess around.

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Harsh Suthar

I partially agree with you because what you said is really good and correct, but in the end, even from your own comment, AI became a tool for you to use rather than going alone. Why? because it needs a controller, a living being, i.e. a human. It makes mistakes and will continue to do so even in the future, too, but to bridge the gap made with those mistakes, like debugging, efficiency, scalability, etc, an experienced/professional developer is needed.

Just take the example of when labor work in industries started happening by machines, it did create unemployment but only for those who don't know how to control the machines. The same case is here, in this industry you have to adapt to the changes and find your way through else as stated in my article too "you will let yourself get replaced"

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Taqmuraz

"I can do something that AI can't" 🧐
Yes, as well as AI can do many things you can't.
Bosses just have to find a way to make money from that. Cheap AI is much more attractive for business than expensive human employee.

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Peter Vivo

I using 5 different AI for my current project
My experience is that team will improve my productivity a lot.

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harsh_suthar_5a9a14772609 profile image
Harsh Suthar

The teaser looks amazing!

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pengeszikra profile image
Peter Vivo

Thank you! I hope the program also will be same level.

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Nikolaus Varzakakos

I agree, I don't think AI can fully replace great software engineers. However, AI tools can augment dev teams and free up time so engineers can focus on the fun stuff and problem solving. Things like generating boilerplate code and unit tests and creating technical documentation can be automated by AI. One of those tools that can do this is Qlerify (qlerify.com). The tool is inspired by Domain-Driven Design and simplifies collaboration between stakeholders and gathering of business needs. I am one of the founders and I would love feedback from the dev community on what we can improve!

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Harsh Suthar

That looks like a very promising product!

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Farhan Ali

Agreed 👍. Yesterday, I showed an example to my brother to highlight where AI fails. It was a small but serious logical error that AI completely ignored, which can affect the task of the program. I’m happy I was able to explain to my brother why AI can't replace us

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Harsh Suthar

Ohh thats relatable, that conversation happened b/w with me and my sibling too!

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imjosephzhu

Thanks for your sharing.

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Harsh Suthar

Welcome 🙂‍↕️

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SkillBoostTrainer

AI simplifies workflows, but the value of developers lies in their ability to think critically and design solutions. Adapt, grow, and use AI as a tool to enhance your work.

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harsh_suthar_5a9a14772609 profile image
Harsh Suthar

Truest words indeed 🙂‍↕️

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Dário Prazeres

Solve problem and communication is great skills.
I like when you said about the business logic, it's something that you need the soft skills to understand how you can implement.

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Harsh Suthar

Yess, I am glad that message/thought was delivered clearly from my article. Thank you for reading 🙂‍↕️

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ProCoders

Thank you for great article!

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harsh_suthar_5a9a14772609 profile image
Harsh Suthar

Welcome 🙂‍↕️

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waqas

what about deep reasoning models like openai o3

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harsh_suthar_5a9a14772609 profile image
Harsh Suthar

That is a good thought, but even that would require a programmer to operate properly. Of course, enhancements in AI technology will be made over the years to produce close to 100% of the best output but after all, it just becomes a tool for programmers to use not to replace them.

As you might have even noticed from my article too, changing with the times and technology is the only way you can survive in this industry, just treat them as your personal assistants you can order around 😅

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Andy

AI can make our work more efficiently, and let us focus on the difficult task.

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Riya

Useful Article.