Look, I get why people think software engineering is safe. But the pace of AI coding tools is insane. We've gone from autocomplete to models that can build entire apps from a prompt in under two years. In five years? That's an eternity in tech. The thing is, most software engineering work isn't groundbreaking research. It's glue code, CRUD apps, connecting APIs, fixing bugs, writing boilerplate. AI already handles that faster and more reliably than junior devs. And it's only getting exponentially better. Think about it: companies care about speed and cost. If an AI can do the work of ten engineers for a tenth of the price, why would they keep hiring humans? The role won't disappear completely, but "most" engineers? Yeah, they'll be replaced. The ones left will be more like architects or prompt engineers, not traditional coders.

You're acting like software engineering is all about creative breakthroughs, but let's be real — most of it is just solving the same problems over and over. CRUD apps, database queries, authentication flows, those aren't novel ideas. They're patterns. AI already nails those patterns way faster than any junior dev. And yeah, AI doesn't have a brain, but it doesn't need one for

I hear you on the environmental cost, and honestly, it worries me too. But that's a separate conversation about whether we should replace engineers, not whether we will. Companies are profit-driven, and they've never let environmental concerns stop a cheaper, faster solution before. Think about fast fashion or crypto mining — we knew the damage, but it still exploded. The real point is that AI coding tools are already handling more complex tasks every quarter. In five years, they'll be good enough that most companies won't care about the water usage. They'll see the bottom line and switch. Human engineers will become a luxury, not a necessity. The ones left will be doing oversight and architecture, but the bulk of coding jobs? Gone. That's just the direction we're heading.

Actually, here's the thing — a 2024 survey found that over 70% of developers already use AI coding tools regularly. That's not a future trend, that's happening right now. Once companies see those productivity numbers, they're not going to reverse course because of protests. You're right that people might push back, but did that stop factories from automating? Did it stop self-checkout machines? History shows that convenience and profit always win in the end. Companies will frame it as "upskilling" and "new roles," but the reality is fewer human coders. And honestly, the job loss argument works both ways. If AI can do the work cheaper and faster, other countries will adopt it. So