This is not the end yet

For several years, the brightest minds in the world have been predicting that IT work will be replaced by AI. Since we at @Ravenetics are contributing to this, we allowed ourselves one afternoon to simulate in our heads the reality that is supposed to arrive. We are already using Microsoft Copilot and GPT, so we are convinced that the elimination of Developers and DevOps will occur within the next few years.

...and WE are most likely the last IT generation that cannot be replaced; we are in a hurry to explain WHY.

If you've ever been responsible for maintaining a production environment, you know how stressful this job can be. You know how complex ecosystems function in companies (both large and small), how many interfaces they have, data buses, and sometimes it's unclear what else sends those bits across the LAN.

Of course, there is the architect/main magician in the company who knows every piece of the puzzle. Let's call him, for the sake of argument, Mr. W?adek.

Now let's move to a reality where AI builds, tests (unit, automatic – top-notch), installs the application and its new versions in the production environment. Such are the glass houses of IT by ?eromski (?eromski is a Polish writer, and glass houses are synonymous with utopia, propaganda, and an empty myth).

After two weeks of operation, users discover a bug.

Of course, the AI that wrote and tested the software does not know the entire ecosystem like Mr. W?adek. What does the AI do? It receives a report, starts correcting and testing based on its knowledge base, and sends a new version to the production environment,

and sends a new version to the production environment,

and sends a new version to the production environment,

and sends a new version to the production environment,

and sends a new version to the production environment,

and sends a new version to the production environment

...until the error is corrected.

With each iteration, the stress level of the IT boss and business increases along with the number of heart pills, ulcers, blood pressure, whatever people have and like.

Now we appear in this story, WE IT, the last of the last, a chosen community that has gained competencies:

by improving open-source projects,

by correcting code from a colleague who went on vacation,

by doing hundreds of code reviews,

by handling helpdesk reports and preparing hotfixes (sometimes more hot than fix).

Our conclusion: in the coming years, one of the most sought-after skills in the IT market will no longer be programming, but reading code with understanding. Moreover, I assume that in the transitional phase, before IT elimination occurs (the period when AI does not develop to the level of AGI), even more programmers* will be needed!!!

*readers of code with understanding and coders of hotfixes

Soon we'll hear that programming languages will change, that they will be "adapted" to AI – agreed,

That system architectures will be adapted to AI – agreed,

That perfect sandboxes will become a necessity for AI to test under ideal conditions – agreed

And so we know that "soon" the code will evolve on its own.

But until then, seeing the complicated architectures of companies, technical debt, and the business account associated with the costs of changing the ecosystem of companies, I am very calm about IT.

Dear Developers and DevOps, Mr. W?adek... have a nice day and a pleasant future WE wish you.

To be continued...