AI is having a moment. From facial recognition to chatbots, it’s infiltrating every part of our lives. Including software development. So should software engineers start updating their resumes?
AI: A Powerful Assistant
Software engineers have already found AI to be quite useful as a tool. It can take care of repetitive tasks such as generating and testing code, which allows the engineer to tackle more complex problems. For example, imagine being able to write miles of boilerplate code in minutes or catch bugs before they even get to production; AI can be a real time-saver.
But Can it Think Like a Human?
But here’s the thing: AI is good at following directions but lacks creativity and problem-solving skills like human engineers do. Writing code accounts for only some parts of software development – understanding user needs, designing creative solutions, adapting when things don’t go as planned are all equally important aspects where AI falls short still today.
The Future is a Collaboration
Collaboration is possibly the future of software development. The laborious tasks will be done by AI thus enabling engineers to think about the bigger picture. They are going to be thinkers who develop strategies for AI tools.
This paradigm shift means that software engineers will have to learn new things. This involves understanding how artificial intelligence functions, having good communication skills with those mighty instruments and simplifying intricate notions into instructions which can be comprehended by AI.
Will artificial intelligence replace software engineers then? Most likely no but it sure will change them. Those that succeed in days to come are developers who embrace it alongside their abilities for collaborating with such systems.
