[the_af]

I can see more projects being deployed by smaller businesses, that would otherwise not be able to.

But how will this translate to engineering jobs? Maybe there will be AI tools to automate most of the stuff a small business needs done. "Ah," you may say, "I will build those tools!". Ok. Maybe. How many engineers do you need for that? Will the current engineering job market shrink or expand, and how many non-trash, well paid jobs will there be?

I'm not saying I know for sure how it'll go, but I'm concerned.

[dwaltrip]

Just had a thought, perhaps software engineers will become more like car mechanics.

[the_af]

That's not an encouraging thought.

By the way, car mechanics (especially independent ones, your average garage mechanic) understand less and less about what's going on inside modern cars. I don't want this to happen to us.

[bubbleRefuge]

would be similar to solution engineers today. you build solutions using ai. think about all the moving parts to building a complex business app. user experience, data storage, business logic, reporting, etc. etc. the engineer can orchestrate the ai to build the solution and validate its correctness.

[the_af]

I fear even this role will need way fewer people, meaning the employment pool will heavily shrink, and those competing for a job will need to accept lower paychecks.

[bubbleRefuge]

like someone said above. demand is infinite. imagine a world where the local AI/Engineer tech is a ubiquitous as the uber driver. don't think it will necessarily create smaller paychecks. hard to say. But I see demand skyrocketing for customized software that can be provided at 1/10 of today's costs.

We are far away from that though. As an enterprise software/data engineer, AI has been great in answering questions and generating tactical code for me. Hours have turned into minutes. It even motivated me to work on side projects because they take less time. You will be fine. Embrace the change. Its good for you. Will lead to personal growth.

[the_af]

I'm not at all convinced demand is infinite, nor that this demand will result in employment. This feels like begging the question. This is precisely what I fear won't happen!

Also, I don't want to be a glorified uber driver. It's not good for me and not good for the profession.

> As an enterprise software/data engineer, AI has been great in answering questions and generating tactical code for me. Hours have turned into minutes.

I don't dispute this part, and it's been this way for me too. I'm talking about the future of our profession, and our job security.

> You will be fine. Embrace the change. Its good for you. Will lead to personal growth.

We're talking at cross-purposes here. I'm concerned about job security, not personal growth. This isn't about change. I've been almost three decades in this profession, I've seen change. I'm worried about this particular thing.

[bubbleRefuge]

3 decades. me too. since 97. maybe uber driver was a bad example. what about having a work model similar to a lawyer? whereby one can specialize in creating certain types of business or personal apps at a high hourly rate ?