Will Software Developers Become Obsolete In Future?

Zaid Shaikh
4 min readDec 25, 2021

we’ve entered the age of Technology, and these days Programming has turn out to be one of the maximum decent, high-paying jobs one may want to get. it’s also a zone that is rapidly evolving, and nearly the whole thing that has currently been related to progress has additionally been associated with programming. This is amazing. However, programmers are not any less susceptible than everybody else in terms of losing their jobs. In this blog, we try to answer the question, “will software developers or programmers become obsolete in future?”

ANALYZING THE CURRENT SCENARIO

There are about 22 million software program developers within the international. By 2023, that variety is expected to develop to 27.7 million. in step with the US Bureau of labor facts, among 2016 and 2026, the number of software program engineers is anticipated to grow at a price of 24% — a good deal faster than any other career within the USA. observing these statistics, one would think there’s nothing to fear about.

however, some are worried that programming, like every other activity, is at a risk to be made obsolete within the destiny. the primary argument given is commonly that of AI and automation: What if AI can software other matters or itself? What if we can automate plenty of the equal code programmers now do? In a way, the fear is rather understandable. We want best to study agencies such as Wix and Wordpress, which permit anyone to design and build an internet site without ever having to learn HTML and CSS. That’s right — today, if you need to construct a website by yourself at home, you could do it.

SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS’ VS AUTOMATION

First of all, we had been automating tasks for a long time now, and if something, call for software program engineers has mostly effectively increased. thinking about website programming, with HTML and CSS, it’s right that we had been capable of automate several of it. however, for one, these offerings cannot truly be said to be changing everybody who could have otherwise built the website themselves. majority of people benefiting from those are bloggers, online workers, and so on, not really programmers. On pinnacle of that, whilst these offerings are correct, there is a lot of custom functionality, of the type you may see on Facebook, that comes from years of iterating and enhancing the coding repositories. That must be carried out via human beings that apprehend the product, the customers, and, as a minimum for now, people who could code.

WHAT ABOUT AI ?

Secondly, even though AI is turning increasingly powerful, a person nonetheless must program that AI. whilst things along with gadget mastering seem magical, as though the AI were programming itself, they could be nothing without humans working at the algorithms — inventing them, enhancing them, refining them. In truth, Google by itself now employs around 30,000 people to work on their numerous AI systems.

SELF DRIVING VEHICLES

Ultimately, the advent of new technology inclusive of IoT, self-using automobiles, digital reality, etc., all provides a brand-new set of challenges that require software program engineers, IT specialists, system engineers, and plenty of different discipline professionals work on them. unless we’ve an all-powerful AI, it will take a long term until it knows all the complexities around diverse emergent technologies and is able to efficiently cope with their challenging tasks.

SO, WILL SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS NEVER BECOME OBSOLETE?

That isn’t to say, of course, that AI will in no way update programmers in the future. AI can already code, and its miles sure to hold changing many coding duties, similar to era has changed several human tasks over the last few centuries, and an increasing number of over the previous couple of many years. however, for “programmers to come to be obsolete” could require a far extra advanced AI, or intelligences. And its miles entirely viable that, through then, we are probably asking this equal query about every other profession on earth.

within the near destiny, but it looks like software engineers won’t be strolling out of jobs. The code may additionally trade, languages may additionally change, and the demanding situations may change. but we need to understand what functions people want to see is but a human fine. And with the call for software program engineers increasing at the least for the foreseeable destiny in case you are planning to make a profession in it, bets are it’s a secure and precise and desirable job.

REFERENCES:

  1. Software Development Research Papers — Academia.edu

2. Architecting the Future of Software Engineering: A Research and Development Roadmap (cmu.edu)

3. Future of Software Engineering l Predictions for 2021 & Beyond (rswebsols.com)

4. Will Artificial Intelligence Replace Software Developers? (stxnext.com)

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Zaid Shaikh

Undergraduate from Vishwakarma Institute of Technology Pune, Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Tech Enthusiast. Coder❤