I'm a project manager at a tech company that is really pushing AI adoption. The company wants to position itself as a pioneer in AI usage and because of that they are implementing a lot of measures to track artificial intelligence usage among employees and ways to incentivize it.
They even created a brand new role: Chief AI Officer. While it's still unclear what this person will do, it's clear that AI will become even more critical in the company.
For now, AI usage is one of the eligibility criteria for raises and promotions but I think it's only a matter of time before they officially announce that those who do not comply with the AI usage quota will be terminated.
Software development is changing
As a tech PM I work with dozens of devs on a daily basis and their reaction to the rise of AI has been mixed. Some dismiss it completely, saying it's only hype and that it will never be able to fully replace developers, while others are losing their minds, thinking it won't take long before they are replaced.
I honestly believe what will actually happen, at least short term, is something in the middle. Developers will still be needed but they will work in more complex things and the simpler things, i.e, what juniors usually do, will be mostly if not fully replaced by AI.
And that will not be limited to the corporate environment. Software development as a whole is changing.
As AI gets better and low-code/no-code platforms start harnessing its power, the "average" person becomes more empowered. With that, I predict at least two things will happen.
Personal software
Let me introduce this idea with a personal example.
I'm crazy about to-do lists. That's how I organize my life, my work and even my Hive posts. To-do lists are very simple in essence but nowadays, there are apps with dozens of features that give such lists superpowers, turning them into powerful management tools.
After personally trying dozens of to-do list apps and reading trustworthy reviews of many others, I came to a disappointing conclusion: the perfect to-do list app doesn't exist. At least for me.
I tried all the famous ones and many of the most obscure ones, and what I learned is that in all cases, it feels like something is missing. One app would have a fantastic UI, but the notification system was garbage. Another would have a great notification system but would not allow the creation of nested tasks.
No matter how many apps I tried, I just couldn't find one that combined all the features I liked from all the apps I used, so I had to compromise and pick one that was missing the least amount of features.
If AI agents were already powerful enough and easily available, I could ask one to help me create not only the code but a fully functional app designed with all the features I want.
That's what I think will happen not too far in the future. Instead of spending time searching for a perfect app, people will just be able to make their own.
Raising the bar
As I previously mentioned, I don't believe developers will be completely replaced right away. That might happen in the future, but I think in the short term, they will stick around.
The nature of their role, however, will change. Instead of building everyday-use apps such as the to-do lists in my example, they will be used for more complex things.
One thing that will change, however, is the perception of what great software looks like.
Today, it can be hard for regular people to differentiate "ok" software from great ones because the technical gap between them, the people, and developers is too broad.
As AI evolves to bridge that gap, everyone will be a software builder in some capacity, and I use the term "builder" very intentionally because, even with AI, I don't think the majority of people would be able to actually "engineer" software.
With so many software builders, it will be much easier for people to spot bad software because they will be much more used to building their own software and will not just buy something they feel they could make themselves.
Final thoughts
There is no question AI will continue to disrupt the software industry. As tools become more powerful, they will enable people to build personalized software for very specific use cases.
Software providers will need to adapt and raise their game if they want to continue to provide value to an audience that will be increasingly more demanding in terms of utility and quality.
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mandatory AI usage, huh? I don't know if I like that at all. 🤔😎🤙
Usually I can hit the quota pretty easily because AI is definitely helpful at some tasks. But yea, it's annoying that it's mandatory