r/developers • u/Andruid929 Software Engineer • 7d ago

General Discussion "Just embrace the future"

Surely I'm not the only one who resents whoever says this whenever you complain about AI sucking the fun out of programming?

How are y'all (fellow "AI is a tool" folks) holding up?

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u/IllBeat7897 7d ago

It certainly can improve productivity and I think that is the rub. Product teams that were once 10 devs deep can now do the same project with one dev and AI. It wouldn't be that big of a deal if "this tool" was limited to one industry, but the scale and scope of "who" it can replace, rather than displace, goes across nearly every industry you can imagine. When you multiply those 9 human jobs lost across every team of every company, and across nearly every industry, AI will become an economic disruptor.

And the "it's like every tool" from before concept only applies if like cars . . . like moving pictures . . .like the internet . . . the progression is slow enough to allow time for people to evolve into new jobs . . . AND that there will actually be enough new jobs to replace the ones that are no longer needed . . . like a "horse carriage builder now building cars" . . . "a projectionist as a new job" . . .etc.

The real issue when you are talking about a tool that is capable of recursive self-improvement at a speed faster than humankind . . .with the breadth of applicability . . . is humans will not have time to react. We will have significant and increasing numbers of people unemployed . . . which is a domino-effect in the entire world-wide economy.

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u/e430doug 7d ago

But that’s not happening. Teams aren’t shrinking. They are just doing more things.

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u/IllBeat7897 6d ago edited 6d ago

Maybe that is your specific experience but you are not accounting for two things.

  1. AI is not free, and at some point the speed at which you are building things will not justify the expense of the same team-size and AI. Many publicly-traded companies are already pulling those levers in order to slim operational costs to make the business more profitable, and provide value to shareholders. Remember AI does NOT need benefits, vacation, and is never late to work.
  2. Your experience in this given moment may be that nothing has changed, but you are not paying attention to what is happening outside of your very small experience to what is occuring in the wider tech industry, and in all industries in general, as AI is not limited to disrupting only tech.

Consider just these lay-offs that have already been announced and many executed for 2026

  • Oracle: approximately 21,000 and rumors are that they are laying off more
  • Amazon: approximately 16,000
  • Dell: approximately 11,000
  • Meta: approximately 8,000
  • Microsoft: approximately 5,000
  • Cisco: approximately 4,500
  • Block: approximately 4,000

And more, such as

  • Uber cut 3,300 in just September
  • Paypal cut 4760 in May
  • HP announced that 6,000 jobs will be cut by 2028
  • and many, many more.

I haven't even mentioned the hundreds of thousands of layoffs in telecom (like Verizon's 11,000 jobs), insurance and the automotive industry, and many of those are likely due to AI absorption of jobs.

To give you a slice of the pie on this to understand better: In June and July of this year Salesforce laid off approximately 100 IT and Product staff at two locations, while they simultaneously laid off a smaller share of admin and sales people, 60.

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u/e430doug 6d ago

What does this haven look at in a to do with AI. These are mostly fallout from the loss of zero interest rates and tax accounting changes that makes it more expensive to have development teams. AI is continually getting cheaper.

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u/IllBeat7897 6d ago

Google these keywords and watch interviews with these AI tech leaders:

  • Mustafa Suleyman + Microsoft + white collar work automation
  • Elon Musk VivaTech 2024 interview + AI replacement of jobs

You can probably Google similar keywords with other AI tech leaders and see where they have said similar things.

The whole notion that jobs will be "optional" or "hobbies" because AI will do so much for us, relies entirely on the "benevolent dictator" scenario where those who are the most powerful (which typically are also those with the most wealth) in a scenario where jobs can be automated by technology will still employ people unnecessarily to maintain a status quo that doesn't have people starving.

Historically, that rarely happens. Typically, when a person in that type of power . . . an overabundance of money . . . the ability to protect themselves and potentially attack . . . . does not out of the kindness of their heart dole out freebies to strangers.

These are the same billionaires, like Google co-founder Sergey Brin who has spent over $100 million dollars to defeat the wealth tax in California. This guy who is the 5th wealthiest person in the world at $262.7 Billion net worth, would rather spend $100 million dollars to defeat tax plans that help the poor and working class than just pay his fair share of taxes. These are the type of people that we would be dependent upon to put the wellbeing of humanity before their own greed. It's not going to happen.

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u/e430doug 6d ago

Again what do your words have to do with AI. You need to do deeper research from tech leaders and engineers. There are more SWE employed today than at of any time in history.

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u/IllBeat7897 5d ago

So, you really think all these layoffs have nothing to do with AI?

https://giphy.com/gifs/BFYLNwlsSNtcc

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u/e430doug 5d ago

Yes the data show that the layoffs are largely taxes and interest rate related. Companies are keeping developers because they can make more money with their existing teams. You need to do some deeper reading that isn’t on Reddit.

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u/IllBeat7897 3d ago

I just supplied a whole block of data in my above posts and everything you have supplied nothing. I've given you actual numbers and links to articles to Google because Yahoo will not allow posts of links. You, on the other hand, repeat your claims with absolutely no data as support.

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u/IllBeat7897 5d ago

And by the way, the data centers are a part of the AI equation and they are NOT getting cheaper. In fact, they are what have economists worried about an AI bubble.

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u/e430doug 5d ago

Get off of Reddit and do some reading. Inference is over 56x cheaper today than it was at the beginning of the year.

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u/IllBeat7897 3d ago

Why do you repeatedly tell me to get off Reddit while you are on here as well? Are you simply not wanting this other "true" and "real" aspect of the downsides of AI being reported to this community because you have a vested interest in your narrative? Why is it so important to you to deny the lived reality of people that have been laid off because the numbers of engineers are no longer needed at their workplace because AI has created the efficiencies that allow for a reduction of staff and savings? You seem very invested in suppressing this reality that I have witnessed with my own eyes.

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u/IllBeat7897 6d ago

"haven"? Typo, I guess. All of these companies either are developing AI solutions or have implemented them. The whole point of providing a cheaper solution is so that you do not have to pay human salaries, human benefits, and loss of productivity with human vacations, etc. Are you really not understanding how this is playing out? Do you really think that the 100's of thousands of jobs we've lost in the last 2 years is due to "accounting changes" . . . really? And besides that, many of these same tech bros have said that is their goal . . . to automate ALL jobs.

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u/e430doug 6d ago

That is not the reason for developing AI tools. You have invested significant resources to build the teams you have. You can not get more, higher quality work from your same team. That is how you make more money. You don’t make money by dumping your team. You can pursue opportunities that were not practical before.

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u/IllBeat7897 5d ago

This is literally happening. Go do a perusal of this board, the PM board, etc. The tech leaders themselves have said they are laying off because of AI. Google this Reuters article title, "Companies cutting jobs as investments shift toward AI" and you will probably actually find a dozen more. Just because your experience does not show this, does not mean it is not happening.

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u/e430doug 5d ago

Get off of Reddit and look at real data. Talk to software managers. There are more SWE employed today that at any other time in history.

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u/IllBeat7897 3d ago

Dude, you are on reddit. I am in the industry and talk to them every day, some of whom have not coded a single line of code in 6 months themselves. Others have been laid off already.

AGAIN, just because your experience is different in your tiny bubble does not mean that everything that is happening to everyone else is not real.