The industrial revolution sparked fears that machines would replace human workers. However, when technology transformed industries like auto-making and secretarial work, the response wasn’t to slash jobs but to ‘degrade’ them. Jobs were broken down into simpler, repetitive tasks. A similar trend is emerging in coding, where AI adoption is changing the nature of work.
As AI spreads through the workforce, white-collar workers, including software engineers, have expressed concerns about mass unemployment. While joblessness has increased, the immediate impact on software engineers appears to be a change in the quality of their work. Tasks are becoming more routine, less thoughtful, and faster-paced.
Companies are leveraging AI to boost productivity, much like the assembly lines of the past. A recent study found that programmers using an AI coding assistant called Copilot increased their output by over 25%. At Amazon, the coding culture is changing rapidly, with the CEO emphasizing the need to work faster to stay competitive. Generative AI is being used to enhance ‘productivity and cost avoidance.’
The shift towards AI-assisted coding is yielding significant returns for companies that adopt it. However, this change raises important questions about the future of coding jobs and the impact on workers. As the industry continues to evolve, it’s crucial to consider the implications of these changes on job quality and the workforce.
