Remember when you thought AI might replace software developers?
Yeah, me too.
When AI first popped up publicly in Chat GPT – I thought "this is fantastic", I already don't need to scroll through endless documentation or StackOverflow threads to understand new concepts or technology. It can help me break down complex problems, help with sticky syntax, and speed up my coding.
Then things accelerated: Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code, "vibe coding" products appeared, and shifted the landscape dramatically. Alongside all the fearmongering, disruptions in the job market, discussions with other developers – I had a bit of an "oh shit" moment, where I wasn't just reading about it, but starting to believe that software developers would become obsolete.
A bit of an identity crisis set in, but I had to remind myself who I am, what I've achieved, my capabilities. They go way beyond understanding syntax or remembering language quirks. I've always been old school – pen and paper are my best friends for taking complex business logic and turning it into well-defined systems. My brain is working when I'm not even at the desk: in the shower, on a walk, over a coffee.
Problem solving. Critical thinking. Pattern recognition. Systems thinking. Conceptual abstraction. Continuous learning. These are all the skills of an experienced Software Developer. We use those skills with tools – programming languages, frameworks, and now AI - to build something that works. That's not going anywhere. Programming as we know it has changed, but not the essence of a good developer.
However, you can't sit back and relax and depend on those abilities. You need to ensure that continuous learning and curiosity stays strong. Staying relevant and adopting new technologies will always be necessary – as it always has been, otherwise we'd all still be building applications in VB.NET.
I've been working as a contractor and independently for 6 years. Every project, I'm jumping into a new codebase, understanding complex systems fast, fixing bottlenecks, modernising platforms. It's never been about writing the most code. It's the thinking work – designing solutions that work, figuring out what actually needs to be built. That's what clients pay for – and that's what AI can't do.
It almost feels like cheating now, watching AI spin up features that would have taken a day, in a matter of minutes. But all it has done is remove the bullshit boilerplate that you were putting off anyway because it was boring. I've always said my job is basically a problem solver – that's exactly what I'm still doing. I'm still figuring out the best way something should be done, designing the system and defining the behaviour, I'm just doing it faster now.
The future isn't AI vs developers. It's developers who understand AI vs developers who don't.
Are you using AI tools yet? What's been your experience? Drop a comment.