will ai replace software engineers?
April 08, 2026
AI is unlikely to replace software engineers outright because engineering is fundamentally about judgement, tradeoffs, and direction, even as AI automates more manual implementation work.
The question everyone’s asking
It’s the topic on everyone’s mind, especially software engineers. AI is coming for people’s jobs. I don’t buy it.
The radiology parallel
I recently listened to Jensen Huang on the Lex Fridman Podcast where he describes the change radiology went through with the introduction of AI, where rather than replacing radiologists, there was actually a greater demand for radiologists after they could now process the work much faster. The work of reading the scans can now be done by AI but the work of radiologists changes to fill the gaps where a human is required.
This particular story has stuck with me and I can draw a few parallels to the work software engineers do today, which goes well beyond the work of writing code.
What software engineering actually is
Software engineering is fundamentally about making tradeoffs, given a set of constraints. Over the length of a career, an engineer builds up a context window much larger than any model on the market today, making difficult decisions and using intuition to make software and learn from the effects of doing it wrong or making mistakes along the way. It’s with this knowledge that an engineer can apply reasoning to any situation, sometimes with emotion influencing the outcome.
Speed isn’t the metric
AI, at least the passing of context and source material through an LLM, is making many parts of the software engineer’s role faster. But this is not a metric on its own. A ratio of speed, direction, and quality of outcome should be used to measure the effectiveness of AI to software engineering.
In your own work, throughput isn’t enough. The same quality of work you’ve always done is not enough. AI is a multiplier of many facets of engineering but I think one that is being downplayed at the moment is the quality of AI at the hands of a skilled professional engineer.
The baking analogy
That tension — between automation and craft — isn’t unique to software. As I think about other industries and how automation has played a part, baking comes to mind: in the beginning, bakers moulded dough by hand and over time the craft evolved. By the 20th century, machines could produce the same bread with higher consistency. Which one is better? This will depend on whom you ask. Some prefer the hand crafted sourdough experience, where some need the consistency and stability of a mass produced bread.
Software may become something similar, where the hand crafted artisan engineering is valued but in much lower quantities than before. Reserved for those who need to fine tune and finesse the output, refining algorithm implementations in much the same way we see lower level languages written today. For those who don’t need to critique or analyse the code, AI will automate this step entirely, such that the fact there is code written will be a forgotten footnote.
Where does that leave engineers?
Software engineering will continue to be about judgement and choosing the right tool for the job, which now includes coding agents that can be layered in or given as much control as possible. This isn’t a one size fits all solution. A human engineer has the ability to decide where AI fits into the software engineering workflow.
The better question
Will AI replace engineers is the wrong question to ask. Instead, ask where in the process of engineering AI is going to replace manual work.
The question isn’t whether AI replaces engineers. It’s which parts of engineering get automated first — and whether you’re the one deciding where AI fits, or waiting for someone else to decide for you.