After the rise of AI in the last few years, we have watched it master primarily human abilities such as communication, data analysis, and even coding. Nowadays, AI models can actually write fine code. That leaves us with the question: Will AI replace programmers?

To understand the answer, we have to ponder the two main entities of this question: AI and programmers. By the end of this article, you will be able to answer the following questions: What is AI? What are AI abilities? What do programmers do? Finally, you will get to know whether AI will replace programmers or not.

What is AI?

AI and programmers have a quite new relationship. AIs were first modeled by mathmatitians. Artificial Intelligence, as the name suggests, is the concept of making machines (artificial) think (intelligence). The recent rise of AI might make you think it’s a new concept or technology. Of course, AI algorithms and the technologies that support them have evolved over the years, but the technical and scientific work on AI started over seventy years ago, in the 1950s.

Interestingly, many AI algorithms, such as neural networks, were developed long before they could be properly executed by a computer. In the last century, computers could not store and process data as they do now. Note what was mentioned before: AI algorithms.

AI is not essentially very different from any other computer program. It’s simply a set of logical steps that a computer will follow, an algorithm. However, AI algorithms can learn, remember, and apply what was learned. Loads of deep mathematics form the foundation of AI algorithms.

What Can AI Do?

Computational power has evolved to the point where AI algorithms have had the opportunity to prove their value. Image recognition, speech recognition, and chatbots are some of the already established AI business applications. Have you tried to contact some service and the first attendant was a chatbot? Has your cell phone sent you pictures with your best friend from last year? Have you asked Alexa to play your favourite song? As you can see, we’re tied to AI in our daily lives.

There are also code-suggestion AIs for programmers. Some examples are GitHub Copilot and Tabnine. These tools review and help programmers improve their code. They can also write code snippets for the programmers. Such tools are quite popular nowadays, to the point that we forget that before the release of GPT-1 in 2018, we could not even think of this kind of tool. 

Less than a decade has passed, and AI has evidently evolved faster than it did in the 20th century, which is impressive. This leaves us with the question: Will AI keep evolving to the point where it will fully replace programmers? 

Before diving into that, we’ll understand what’s involved in being a programmer and what knowledge and skills programmers must excel at. Then, we’ll compare that with AI capabilities.

Programmer Requirements

If you understand the basics of programming, you know that the first step into the IT world is to learn logic and a programming language. There are plenty of them available: Python, Java, JavaScript, Go, C#, and so on. Although logic and programming languages are the foundation of programming, they are just the tools programmers use to achieve their main goal: solving problems.

These are not just technical or logical problems but real-world business problems. Programmers know what computers are capable of. They have to study clients’ demands in order to use computer capabilities to meet such demands. Finding the optimal remedy for clients’ pain can be challenging.

Quite frequently, there are no formulas or models for solving the problem. Dealing with it demands creativity. The ability to think outside the box is indispensable for programmers.

Clear communication is also necessary for programmers. It can sound weird, but clients do not always fully understand their problem and hardly know clearly what they need. It is usually up to the programmer to model the problem in detail, find the gaps, suggest solutions, and implement them. Besides, programmers usually work in teams, and good communication is necessary within the team. 

As with any other role, programmers are not always on a bed of roses. Working with low resources, reduced teams, and other adverse conditions are part of a programmer’s routine. Given that, I think you can guess what the next skill of a good programmer is: adaptability. 

Software projects are complex. Design, implementation, security, data management, UI/UX, cloud computing, cost efficiency, deadlines—these are just a few aspects of a regular project. As you can see, software development is a multidisciplinary task, which requires the team to work harmoniously. Can you imagine such a complex project progressing without leadership? Hardly. That’s why experienced programmers tend to play leadership roles. 

Up until this point, we’ve considered some of the main technical and soft skills of programmers. Let’s move on to comparing AI’s attributes to programmers’ requirements.

Does AI Meet the Requirements?

For replacing programmers, AIs must meet the requirements discussed previously. As we could see in the last section, programmers need much more than just technical knowledge and skills. Of course, programming languages, cloud computing, security, databases, UI/UX, computer networks, and so on are the foundation, depending on the programmer’s role on the team. They’re not all, though. 

Some of the soft skills required for programmers were considered: problem-solving, creativity, communication, adaptability, and leadership. Is it reasonable to expect AI to master all that? Not at all, at least not in the near future. 

Although AIs are faster and can store and process more data than humans, they cannot efficiently think out of the box and come up with new solutions for new problems, which is creativity. Although chatbots have played a good role in communication, they have plenty of room to evolve.

You can experience it yourself. Give a complex problem to an AI like ChatGPT. By complex, I mean with lots of context and information. Note that if you do not express yourself very precisely, the AI will not understand the problem correctly and give a good solution. The problem is that in the real world, we do not communicate as precisely as AI needs.

AIs are not as adaptable as humans. Their knowledge and reasoning are fully based on training. If a demand goes beyond their scope, they simply can’t adapt as humans would. The lack of all these attributes implies that AIs are also not ready for leadership, probably the most complex skill mentioned here. 

After the previous consideration, it’s clear that AI lacks the soft skills required to fully replace programmers. So, will AI replace programmers? The current generation of AI is not ready for it, nor will it be in the near future. Nevertheless, we have to admit that AIs have overcome programmers in some aspects. That’s what we’re discussing in the next section.

What Does AI Excel At?

We have to admit that writing full algorithms, which would take hours if written by humans, in just a few seconds is impressive. Have you ever lost hours reading documentation? If you simply ask an AI, it will be able to quickly summarize what you need. Besides writing code, AIs can write code documentation for you. They can also write test cases. All that can be done much faster than a human would do manually. 

Since AI can actually understand code, they are helpful for debugging. Note that the main advantage AIs have over programmers is speed. Computers are faster than us. As long as the task does not require purely human skills, like subjectivity, AIs can potentially accomplish it as well and much faster than a human would.

When it comes to AI, it all depends on the training. If an AI is trained with poor code, it will write poor code. If it is trained with good coverage test cases, it will write good coverage test cases. Training needs and speed make AIs the perfect ally for programmers. Let’s see why.

Dive Into the Unknown

AI has evolved as a tool for programmers. It can bring computational efficiency to programmers. It can take care of all the boilerplate. That’s exactly how many programmers have applied AI-powered tools in their work, as suggested by a survey made by CodeSignal.

We live in the early beginning of disruptive times, the AI Age. AIs have not replaced programmers in any aspect of their work for now. It’s clear, though, that they can take on some boilerplate tasks in the near future. What we have to do is extract the most out of it.

Getting rid of the boilerplate means more time to focus on more complex and valuable tasks. Besides, as mentioned before, AIs demand good training. New roles will appear, like AI trainers. Disruptive times bring both challenges and opportunities to rise. 

Fighting the process has proven to be ineffective with combustion engines and cloud computing. One day they were also disruptive; nowadays society fully depends on them. The very same will happen, or is happening, with AI-powered tools.

As we’ve considered, AI is not replacing programmers, but complementing their work. Learn how to get the most out of such tools. For now, senior developers with over fifteen years of experience are outstanding attributes for the curriculum. Maybe, in the near future, AI expertise will be a requirement too.

Keep reading

Are you a beginner programmer? Maybe you’ve heard every programmer should master math. Is that so? check the article I’ve written about it: 9 Things Every Beginner Should Know About Math and Programming