Is the Programmer Dead?

There has been a great deal of hype around the supposed death of the programmer in the age of AI. Headlines would have us believe that artificial intelligence is faster, cheaper, and more capable than any junior developer, and that, as a result, entire roles are becoming obsolete.

But is that really the case?

I’ve been developing software for over 30 years. During that time, I’ve worked across a wide range of languages and paradigms, from Visual Basic, Perl, and PHP, through to Node.js and modern JavaScript. I’ve lived through multiple “end of programming” moments before. None of them played out the way the headlines predicted.

About a year and a half ago, I began seriously working with AI. Initially, it helped me do something surprisingly personal: turning ideas that had lived in my head for years into written articles I’d never quite managed to get out. From there, it was only a matter of time before I began using AI as a development partner, and that’s where things became genuinely interesting.

A Real Project, A Real Test

Around three years ago, I built an automated crypto trading system. It took me over six months to get it working properly. Then the crypto crash happened, APIs changed, and the project was shelved.

Recently, with markets improving, I revisited the idea, only to discover that the old codebase was no longer fit for purpose. The exchange API had changed, my own Node.js skills had improved, and the architecture itself could be dramatically refined.

This time, I decided to rebuild with AI as a collaborator.

Before writing a single line of code, I used AI to critique the idea itself, its strengths, weaknesses, risks, and assumptions. I specified architectural constraints: modular class-based design, modern security practices, clean separation of concerns. In effect, I treated the AI as another developer sitting beside me.

After roughly an hour of discussion, we had a clear outline. Then I asked it to build the system.

In under ten minutes, I had a complete modular codebase. I merged it into my repository, ran it locally, and, unsurprisingly, it didn’t work.

Errors appeared immediately.

But here’s the key point: the errors were small, understandable, and fixable. Within another half hour, the system was running. From concept to functioning code in around three hours, compared to the six months it had originally taken me.

That is genuinely astonishing.

The Devil Is Still in the Detail

But this is where the hype breaks down.

As with any real project, once the system was running, I began refining it. This is where AI starts to show its limits. I deliberately fed changes in small, manageable steps, because large task lists tend to produce brittle results.

AI would implement requested changes accurately, but often missed the connections between modules, classes, or assumptions elsewhere in the system. I repeatedly had to step in, reconcile logic, and rewire the architecture.

This isn’t a flaw in intelligence. It’s a limitation of context, continuity, and responsibility.

And it’s the single biggest reason the programmer is not dead.

The Uncomfortable Truth About Developer Jobs

AI has become a convenient scapegoat for job losses in tech, but the deeper truth is less dramatic and more structural.

The software industry has been moving toward consolidation for years. Platforms matured. Frameworks stabilized. SaaS replaced bespoke solutions. Even before AI, junior roles were becoming harder to find.

When I started, developers were genuinely scarce. Most of us were self-taught because there was no formal structure. Then came the internet boom, and suddenly, if you could write code, you were employable.

That era produced millions of developers globally, particularly in regions where coding offered a path out of poverty. Today, we have a saturated market entering a period of consolidation.

AI didn’t create this contraction. It accelerated it.

The Silver Lining

What we are witnessing now is a natural correction. Fewer developers will be needed, but those who remain will be far more valuable.

The future developer won’t work in large teams writing boilerplate code. They’ll work alongside AI agents, directing, validating, integrating, and taking responsibility for outcomes.

And here’s what the headlines never talk about:

Development is not a static, fully-defined process.

Real projects don’t start with perfect specifications. They start with a human idea, vague requirements, and constant iteration. Clients don’t want to debug prompts. They don’t want to trace logic errors. They want someone who can translate vision into reality, and shield them from complexity.

That role has always belonged to the developer.

The Real Risk No One Is Discussing

There is also a deeper systemic risk in allowing AI to generate the majority of future code.

AI trains on shared sources. Shared repositories. Shared examples. If every system begins to converge on the same patterns, the same abstractions, and the same libraries, we create monoculture, and monoculture is fragile.

We already know this from supply-chain attacks and global vulnerabilities. If a fundamental flaw propagates through AI-generated code at scale, the consequences will be far-reaching.

Human diversity in thought, style, and implementation has always been one of software’s hidden strengths. We should be careful not to remove it.

So… Is the Programmer Dead?

No.

But the programmer is changing.

When I first saw what AI could do, I was honestly shaken. After 30 years of development, it felt like a child had walked in and outpaced me effortlessly. I stopped coding entirely for a couple of months.

Then I came back, because I love solving problems.

And that’s the point.

AI doesn’t decide what to build. It doesn’t take responsibility. It doesn’t care if something works for humans in the real world. It needs instruction, judgement, and oversight.

As long as humans have ideas, and money, they will need developers.

The environment will be different. The tools will be extraordinary. And those who embrace them rather than fear them will not just survive, they’ll thrive.

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