There’s been endless discussion about AI changing the workplace. One job has felt it to the core: coding.
Business Insider set out to understand exactly how deep this transformation was, for better and worse — and often both.
We wanted to talk with engineers about their feelings and experiences: the excitement and trepidation, their day-to-day work, and career outlook. Was AI making them more productive? Were their skills still relevant? And how was the new tech changing their relationships with bosses and coworkers?
The result was “The Great Coding Reset,” a six-part series chronicling this transformational moment, as AI coding tools reshape daily workflows, companies’ strategies, and what it means to be a software engineer.
Here’s what we learned:
AI’s breakneck speed surprised us
Things move quickly in tech, and even quicker when it comes to AI. That was a major challenge when trying to capture the moment.
In early May, tokenmaxxing — the concept of using AI as much as possible — started to go mainstream. Companies used leaderboards to turn AI use into friendly competition. The tokens flowed; boundless experimentation was encouraged.
Mere weeks later, Uber’s COO said spiraling token costs were hard to justify, and Amazon shut down an internal leaderboard. By June, companies were focused on reining in ballooning budgets.
Engineers kept us apprised of it all in real time. Their views and experiences changed over the course of weeks or even days. This blistering pace meant surging productivity, a flurry of experimentation, and, in some cases, developers leaving the industry altogether.
Engineers are not a monolith
The AI debate has been framed around worst-case or best-case scenarios: It’s either going to destroy all jobs or create a utopian society. When you talk with those on the front lines, their feelings are often more complicated.
For every software engineer worried about AI automating parts of the job they love, we heard from another spending their weekends joyfully building with new tools. One developer said he gets more done with AI, but is wary about giving it too much control.
We saw similar nuance reflected in the survey results we collected during the series’ run. One respondent told us that AI had made their job “worse in many ways.” Others disagreed, with one saying the technology had allowed them to solve more complex problems, while still feeling in control of the process.
Junior developers’ futures remain unclear
Many engineers are now AI managers, spending their days reviewing AI-generated code and fixing its mistakes. That’s changed what it takes to get a coding job, too, as companies vet AI chops. It’s also meant that, increasingly, developers are performing multiple roles and working across disciplines.
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A big question is what these changes mean for those just entering the profession. Often, senior engineers get the most out of AI because they have the technical experience to understand what AI is doing. If AI takes over more of the work that junior talent once did — debugging, creating simple features — how will people gain that same level of technical know-how?
There are lessons for all white-collar workers
The AI reckoning came for software engineers first, causing job disruption, if not job destruction.
As a result, developers have rapidly learned new skills, doubled down on the more human and less replaceable parts of their jobs, and in some instances, decided they can have a greater impact elsewhere.
There’s no guarantee that the rest of white-collar work will be as AI-exposed. Code is right or wrong. Other tasks are often messier.
As our colleague Alistair Barr has written, AI is everyone’s job now. But, even if other jobs don’t change as fundamentally, there are lessons for the wider workforce about flexibility, adaptability, and what gives our work value.
The rest of us should be paying attention.
You can read the rest of the series below. If any of these pieces speak to you, or if you want to share your own story of how AI is changing your industry, please feel free to drop your thoughts in the comments section below, or email us at [email protected] and [email protected].
Credits
Editors: Julia Herbst, Robert Scammell
Reporters: Ana Altchek, Henry Chandonnet, Shubhangi Goel, Juliana Kaplan, Hugh Langley, Sarah E. Needleman, Tim Paradis, Thibault Spirlet, Jacob Zinkula
Art: Bryan Erickson, Rebecca Zisser
Video: Nicole Forero
Data visualization: Madison Hoff, Andy Kiersz, Randy Yeip
Additional editing support: Mary Hanbury, Bartie Scott, Steven Tweedie
