🤔 People who think AI can replace developers and build entire apps on its own probably haven’t spent enough time actually using it to code, build, or launch something real.
100% agree. AI is an incredible copilot, but it's nowhere near autonomous pilot. I use AI daily for code generation, refactoring, and documentation. It accelerates workflows dramatically. But the moment you need it to architect a system with proper IAM, handle edge cases in distributed environments, or debug a race condition across microservices, it falls apart. AI can write boilerplate. It can suggest patterns. It can't reason about tradeoffs between security, performance, and maintainability. It doesn't understand your compliance requirements, your data classification policies, or why certain architectural decisions were made three years ago. The people hyping "AI will replace developers" are the same ones who thought low-code would eliminate engineering teams. What actually happens: the complexity moves up the stack. Now you need engineers who can prompt effectively, validate AI outputs, and integrate generated code into production systems with proper governance. Was there more to your statement? Curious what patterns you're seeing that reinforce this.
Seems unfair to blame the uninitiated when you got big-talking tech CEO's out there saying all engineers will be replaced in 6 months and other silliness.
Yeah, when people say that, it’s a dead giveaway that they’re just going by hype, not experience. AI is incredible as a tool. As a Dev? Oof.
Seeing this a lot lately. Couldn’t agree more.
They also probably haven't actually built a real software application themselves (not lead, built) or they would understand the numerous complexities that come with application development. Not the least of which is the reality that no matter how much you think you know or how well you have planned, there will almost always be some piece of info, or some workflow, or some whole implementation that no one remembered or thought of, which causes delays, rewrites, and sometimes complete removal of fully developed features. AI doesn't think through those things; it takes instructions and sort of obeys them.
AI is a great assistant but not a good lead.
It's like a car, if you know how to drive it will move forward, backward, left, right, if you don't know how to drive most likely you'll crash it. Same with AI, if you know how to use it you can get really good gains but I'd agree at one point, it's not about replacing, mostly complementing and accelerating
Insightful discussion here. AI is undoubtedly a powerful tool that can significantly enhance development efficiency, but it cannot yet replace the nuanced expertise and creativity that skilled developers bring to building complex applications. The key lies in understanding how to leverage AI effectively as an assistant rather than expecting it to fully automate the development process.
True — many leadership teams still see AI as a magic productivity switch. Without hands-on experience, they expect developers to deliver new apps or complex features instantly just because AI tools are available.
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3wI have, I have been building software most of my life, started programming at 8, used to wish I had an ai to help me, now I do. It's a tool, if you use it correctly it works, the problem is knowing how to use a tool. If you're given a monkey wrench to nail some boards you can but it'll be crappy, the right tools for the right jobs. Ive released several apps and so has my son, mine are way more complex but the point is to use it correctly, as an assist, you wouldn't tell an intern go fix X without a lot of primer because otherwise they'll screw it up...