What do you think the future looks like for developers when it comes to AI?
ICYMI: @levelsio shipped a flight simulator game last week. It's pretty fun, it's got some low poly / minecraft-esque graphics, pretty good physics, a turbo boost, and even PvP. The kicker is he built it, at least the version one anyway entirely by prompting @Cursor.
It got me thinking about a question that a ton of people have tried to answer in the past few years; What does the future look like for someone getting into development?
I think developers will still be highly sought after for any startup or company but I can imagine teams becoming smaller, and the workload becoming more efficient with things like bug tickets, pull requests, code reviews becoming a lot more automated.
Replies
I think that some basic jobs and entry-level development jobs will gradually be replaced by AI. And there is already such a trend now. Activities that don't require much thinking can be replaced. But for deeper work that requires the use of human thinking and experience, AI should assist people in their work. Development should also pay more attention to learning about AI to improve work efficiency
Product Hunt
Exciting times ahead for anyone just getting into development. It's at a stage now where you can basically "prompt something into existence"(even if it's not fully functional or perfect) if you have idea for a tool/product. Personally, I think devs of the future will be playing legos with what these AI agents output you instead of putting something together from the ground up with api libraries.
Graphify
@rajsb_ Yeah, I totally see that happening. It’s less about writing every line from scratch and more about knowing how to structure, refine, and guide AI-generated code into something actually useful.
Feels like the shift is from pure coding to orchestrating systems, understanding what pieces to connect, debugging AI output, and making sure everything works seamlessly.
Do you think this will make junior devs ramp up faster, or will it actually make it harder to learn fundamentals since they’re skipping the "build from scratch" phase?
Product Hunt
@hussein_r Definitely it's gonna get them faster to that MVP, but I think it's worth learning the fundamentals or sometimes even re-learning what you might vaguely know is going to help in the long run if something breaks at some point :)
Product Hunt
Personally feel that the way people break into development will change and the expectations of developers will change.
People will now be able to learn alongside AI tools and discover a new passion for dev work this way vs starting with codecademy, tutorials, or docs
Devs (junior and above) will become expected to learn how to utilize these tools and show their ability to effectively use them to increase performance, reduce cost, and/or innovate.
I'm actually curious what dev interviews will look like down the road as well.
Graphify
That’s exactly what I’ve been thinking about lately. AI is making devs way more efficient, but it’s not replacing them, it’s just shifting the skills needed. I can see a future where smaller teams ship bigger projects faster, and devs focus more on problem-solving, system design, and AI orchestration rather than just writing raw code.
Bug fixing, PR reviews, and even refactoring will become way more automated, but creativity, architecture, and high-level decision-making will still need human intuition.
Do you think there’s a risk of too much automation making devs overly reliant on AI, or is that just the natural evolution of coding?
Developers will remain sought after and always be needed, as AI can’t tackle every complex task (a human touch is still needed). However, AI will help speed up processes, requiring developers to work alongside it.
AI for developers is evolving fast, but beyond that, we’re seeing a shift where AI-powered tools automate workflows, freeing teams from repetitive work. As someone deeply involved in workflow automation, I’m curious—how do you see AI transforming the way teams manage their daily operations, beyond just coding?
My opinion brings out the worst in devs, but I’m saying it anyway.
Devs are cooked, and soon(very soon) AI will be better at coding than any developer in the world.
AI can already create absurd things on its own, but we’re still early, and there’s a learning curve. I just don’t know how steep that curve really is.
I’ve been creating production-ready apps using only AI, but I’ve also been experimenting with AI since the beginning—way before tools like Cursor even existed.
The hype is real, and I get a lot of hate from devs when I post this on Reddit or Twitter :x
For me, the most valuable skills will be critical thinking, domain knowledge, and the ability to refine AI-generated outputs. Experienced engineers and new devs alike should focus on adaptability—leveraging AI while mastering the principles that drive scalable, efficient, and secure software.
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