A sign of things to come in software development? Mark Zuckerberg says AI will be doing the work of mid-level engineers this year – and he’s not the only big tech exec predicting the end of the profession
Mark Zuckerberg has hinted that Meta could begin replacing software engineers with AI as early as 2025, marking the latest in a string of troubling predictions for the profession.
The bold statement came during his interview on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast earlier this month, where Zuckerberg suggested AI code generation systems are nearing a point where they can replicate the work conducted by mid-level engineers.
“Probably in 2025 we at Meta, as well as the other companies that are basically working on this, are going to have an AI that can effectively be a sort of mid-level engineer at your company that can write code.”
Zuckerberg said this will be extremely expensive for companies looking to automate the majority of mid-level development in the short term. However, the efficiency gains afforded by the move will eventually pay dividends as human developers are replaced.
“In the beginning it’ll be really expensive to run, then you can get it to be more efficient and then over time we’ll get to the point where a lot of the code in our apps and including the AI that we generate is actually going to be built by AI engineers instead of people engineers.”
Software developers may be forced to upskill in an era of AI code generation
Zuckerberg’s comments could be a hint at things to come for software developers in the coming years as the profession enters a period of change. AI coding assistants have already taken hold in the space over the last two years, and this trend shows no sign of slowing down.
Research from Gartner found the maturity of the AI coding assistant market accelerated dramatically in the space of a year in 2023, with the use of these tools growing from just 10% of developers to 63% by the third quarter of the year.
Stack Overflow’s 2024 survey also recorded that 76% of developers were using or at least planning on using AI coding tools, a 6% increase on 2023’s figures.
While Zuckerberg suggested that some areas of the profession will include the wholesale substitution of human engineers with AI systems, the technology will also “augment” remaining workers to focus on other tasks in their daily workflow.
“My view on this is like [in the] future people are just going to be so much more creative and are going to be freed up to do kinda crazy things.”
Zuckerberg isn’t the only leading executive in the tech industry to have expressed this sentiment, although perhaps he has done so in the most public manner yet.
In September 2024, AWS chief executive Matt Garman also pointed toward a paradigm shift in the profession, suggesting that the majority of developers would not be coding within the next two years.
He stressed the ability to write code was not the primary skill of a good engineer, and focused instead on their ability to innovate.
In early 2024, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang also pointed to a paradigm shift in software development following the emergence of generative AI.
Speaking at the World Government Summit in Dubai, Huang suggested that coding would no longer be a viable career for younger generations entering the tech workforce.
With this in mind, Huang noted that upskilling will become critical for enterprises moving forward, enabling those currently in the profession to compensate for the influx of AI tools and solutions.
Research from Gartner late last year highlighted the importance of upskilling in the software engineering profession, with the consultancy claiming that 80% of the workforce will be required to upskill by 2027 to accommodate for the changing nature of the profession.
As AI plays an increasingly central role in the world of software development, and ‘AI-native software engineering’ emerges, Gartner said workers will have to adopt an ‘AI-first mindset’ where they focus on steering these systems and giving them the context they need to complete tasks.
Other potential opportunities for software developers as AI code generation sweeps the industry include training in AI-specific software, with one Gartner analyst stating that the AI era will demand a “new breed of software professional, the [human] AI engineer”.
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