"But AI can do it quicker!"

Before we get started, I’d like to say that I am writing this post because my partner has recently started learning software development and has created a few small projects with minimal AI assistance. She then went on a few interviews, where the title was said to her when she showed off her projects, even though the interviewers knew she’d just begun getting into the field.

Why is it so bad? Isn’t it the truth?

Sure, but imagine your 6-year-old child coming to you and showing off how they learned multiplication, and you reply with “Great, but a calculator can do it quicker!”

Horrible, right? That’s how people who are just getting into software development feel when they show off a project they built with minimal AI assistance and people who usually don’t know what they’re talking about tell them that “AI can do it better/quicker/etc.”

Can an AI do it quicker? Sure. But like you wouldn’t tell your 6-year-old that a calculator will do that quicker, you shouldn’t be saying that to people who are just getting into the field.

The bigger picture

With all that said, this isn’t just about my partner. This is about a much bigger issue in this field: Junior Developers. It has gotten infinitely harder to get a job in the software development industry, and that might cause the industry to have a collapse in the future (assuming AI doesn’t completely take over).

With no new juniors, you will not have any new seniors, and sooner or later, all the seniors will quit their jobs or retire altogether. You cannot expect all juniors to have multi-million dollar SaaS apps in their portfolio, especially those who are freshly out of school or university. In my opinion, recruiters should instead test for problem-solving skills, creativity, and whether the interviewee can work without AI assistance. At the end of the day, AI isn’t autonomous; it requires a person to write precise instructions. Even with the smartest models to date and the best prompt engineering, AI is AI; it will make mistakes, hallucinate, and give subpar answers that don’t perform at scale.

Furthermore, a senior isn’t just a developer with 7+ years of experience; it’s the one who has guided dozens of new developers, the person who accidentally pushed faulty code to prod before, made mistakes, and learned from them. It’s also the person who knows the intricacies of their field, holding some niche knowledge no AI model is aware of or knows how to fix.

A “senior” who can’t function without AI is not a senior.

Is this another “AI bad” article?

No, this isn’t another “old man shouts at cloud” article demonizing AI. AI is an amazing tool that has accelerated the development process for everyone. I, in fact, used AI to help me rebuild my portfolio and even review this article.

AI isn’t bad, but it isn’t the solution to everything, and for now, it doesn’t entirely replace developers.