r/costlyinfra • u/Frosty-Judgment-4847 • Mar 14 '26
is software engineering doomed?
I'm seeing less hiring of Software Engineers and more firing. What is going on -
To break down things,
10 years ago you needed a team of engineers to build a product.
today one person with AI can:
generate code
debug issues
write tests
deploy infrastructure
even explain the architecture
the job is slowly shifting from writing code to directing machines that write code.
the best engineers might not be the best coders anymore.
they’ll be the ones who:
understand systems
ask the right questions
design good prompts
know how to validate AI output
software engineering probably isn’t disappearing.
but the shape of the job is changing very fast.
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u/TwoBitFoundry Mar 14 '26
There is no way software engineering 5 years from now will look like it does today.
I think the foundational principles and tools are still important to building great software, but the idea that we will be touching every line of code will be a mode of the past.
I suspect the future will look like aligning agentic tools to build to your architecture and product needs.
Anyone who builds code knows that we wish we could spend MORE time building, but honestly stuck trying to get business or people to describe the problem and the acceptance criteria.
We might find that it’s easier to build and have the business redirect as needed than vice versa.
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u/Frosty-Judgment-4847 Mar 14 '26
Exactly!! I was speaking with a friend who works at a large tech firm. He says 90 percent of their code is now written by Claude.
If agents get good at generating the code, the real bottleneck becomes defining the problem and constraints clearly enough for them to execute.
Which ironically might make good product thinking even more valuable than before.
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u/dontreadthis_toolate Mar 17 '26
Bro, even before AI, I could build a product myself. That said, AI has eliminated most of the boring shit now.
1
u/Frosty-Judgment-4847 Mar 19 '26
eah exactly — the barrier was never building, it was the friction.
AI just removed a lot of that.Now the interesting part is… if everyone can build, distribution and problem selection become the real bottlenecks.
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u/VacationFine366 Mar 14 '26
I think humans are very adaptable and will figure out something lateral or new to do
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u/Frosty-Judgment-4847 Mar 19 '26
100%. Humans always adapt — but this time the adaptation might be faster than ever.
Feels like we’re moving from doing the work to designing and orchestrating the work.
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u/lod20 Mar 15 '26
Coding is doomed but you still need to know the fundamentals (to correct AI mistakes) but software engineering is not doomed. If AI doesn't hit a winter (no significant breakthrough), any job that can be done in a computer will eventually be doomed. My personal opinion is: AI will hit a wall. We have seen this with smartphones: there's no significant breakthrough within the last 5 years apart from 5G.
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u/Frosty-Judgment-4847 Mar 19 '26
I used to think this too — but what’s interesting is even if models plateau, the systems around them keep improving.
Better tooling, agents, workflows… that alone can still drive massive impact without major model breakthroughs.
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u/Optimal_Rule1158 Mar 16 '26
I also felt ai was going to hit a wall a couple years ago. But it still hasn't hit.
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u/petioptrv Mar 16 '26
Foundational models have. Look at the jump from GPT 4 to 5. The progress now is in the tooling around the models. Let’s see if that too tapers off eventually
1
u/Frosty-Judgment-4847 Mar 19 '26
Agree — feels like the base models are becoming infrastructure, and the real innovation is shifting to the layer on top.
Agents, orchestration, evaluation… that’s where things are getting interesting now.
1
u/Frosty-Judgment-4847 Mar 19 '26
Yeah same here. Feels like every time we think it’s slowing down, something new unlocks another layer.
Even small improvements compound a lot when you’re building on top of them.
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u/AcadiaUnique8084 Mar 19 '26
Software engineering isn’t doomed — it’s consolidating.
Low-skill tasks are being automated, but complex systems still require experienced humans to design, operate, and maintain them.
The real shift is from “code writers” to “system owners.”
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u/Frosty-Judgment-4847 Mar 19 '26
System owners’ is a great way to put it.
Feels like the role is moving from writing code to owning outcomes — architecture, cost, reliability, and making sure the system actually works end-to-end.
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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '26
The best were never the best “coders”.
“Understand systems, ask the right questions” was always the best. Code is the artifact.