The Vision of a One-Person Unicorn
Last year, an article made waves claiming that the future might bring a unicorn company with just one employee. That’s wild because, as we know, unicorns - companies valued at over $1 billion - usually have huge teams. They need lawyers, accountants, frontend and backend developers, designers, DevOps engineers, mobile developers, and so on.
But imagine this: a unicorn where there’s no IT team, no legal department, no designers - just a founder armed with AI tools automating all these processes. 🤯
Crazy? Sure. Plausible? Maybe. 🧐
Now, one such company might not shake up the entire industry overnight. Established companies with large codebases will still need developers to maintain and improve their systems. Everyone keeps their jobs, and life goes on.
The Ripple Effect: More Startups, Fewer Developers
💡 But let’s push this idea further. If one person can use AI to create a billion-dollar business, what’s stopping someone else from doing the same? Not every company needs to be a unicorn to disrupt the market. The world is full of successful startups and mid-sized companies valued at less than $100 million - and these are the businesses employing most developers today.
Imagine a solo founder with programming knowledge using AI to build a complex system. The startup takes off 🤑, and the founder realizes they can keep scaling with just AI and a handful of employees. Why hire a 40-person IT team when five people and advanced AI tools get the job done?
Here’s where it gets tricky.
If more startups and companies adopt this model, the demand for developers could drop. The job market gets tighter, competition increases, and salaries could start to decline. Being a developer may no longer be the golden ticket it is today. Instead, it might become just another “ordinary” profession with an average paycheck.
Should Developers Be Worried?
🤪 Before you panic, let’s take a step back. This isn’t happening tomorrow. Right now, developers are still in high demand, and AI tools are far from replacing human ingenuity and creativity.
But it’s worth asking:
Will AI fundamentally reshape the IT job market?
Will the days of six-figure developer salaries become a thing of the past? These are questions we should all be thinking about.
What’s Your Take?
This is just my perspective, and I could be totally wrong. What do you think? Will AI replace developers? Will it make the job market more competitive, or will it create new opportunities?
Share your thoughts - I’d love to hear them.
P.S. The screenshot has been edited. 😊
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