There is a lot of fear-mongering surrounding generative AI and its impact on the labor market, some of which are valid concerns and some of which are not. According to Gartner, while software engineers may not need to worry about losing their jobs, they will likely need to upskill - the analyst firm says that 80% of engineering technicians may need upskilling.
Philip Walsh, senior principal analyst at Gartner, said when emphasizing that humans will not be laid off:
"Bold claims about AI's capabilities have led to speculation that AI may reduce the need for human engineers or even replace them entirely. While AI will change the role of software engineers in the future, human expertise and creativity will always be necessary to deliver complex, innovative software."
Gartner also made predictions about how GenAI will impact software engineers in the short and long term. In the short term, AI tools are expected to provide modest productivity gains by enhancing existing developer work patterns and tasks. Productivity gains will be greatest for senior developers in organizations with mature engineering practices.
In the medium term, AI agents will change work patterns, allowing developers to fully automate and offload more tasks. This will lead to the emergence of AI-native software engineering when most of the code is generated by AI.
Gartner believes that in the long term, we will see the rise of artificial intelligence engineering, and enterprises will need more skilled software engineers to meet the growing demand for artificial intelligence software.
Explaining the role of AI engineers, Walsh said they have a unique skill set in software engineering, data science and artificial intelligence/machine learning. To help achieve this shift, Gartner said, enterprises need to invest in AI developer platforms that can efficiently build AI capabilities and allow for the integration of AI at scale.
Read the full report:
https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2024-10-03-gartner-says-generative-ai-will-require-80-percent-of-engineering-workforce-to-upskill-through-2027