Chasing new skills, going back to basics and pushing for collective action: how software engineers are adapting to AI | AI (artificial intelligence)

Every weekday, Matt, a software engineer, looks forward to his four-hour train commute to Pawling, New York. It’s time he uses to work on his own project: a browser-based video game for which he writes every line of code himself.

“I am actively trying to keep my axe sharp,” said Matt, who did not want to use his actual name, to protect his employment. In the last six months, Matt’s job has increasingly shifted away from coding, problem solving and software architecture towards reviewing code generated by artificial intelligence. Convinced that the shift will weaken his skills, he’s doing what he can to keep them intact. “I am trying not to leverage AI where I can.”

His career as a software engineer, which typically has paid more than $200,000 annually, used to feel like a sure thing. But after a layoff last summer and a warning from his current boss to use AI more, he said his future feels dark.

For a generation of workers like Matt, software engineering promised stability, security and upward mobility. But as AI changes how software is developed – Google says 75% of its code is now written by AI – it’s altering the profession much faster than the rank-and-file anticipated. Software engineers are frustrated, anxious and trying to adapt to a startling new reality in which the value of their skills is unclear. As a result, they’re doubling down on fundamentals, chasing new skills to stay relevant, seeking collective action to push for better protections or even contemplating exiting the industry entirely, according to more than a dozen software engineers who spoke to the Guardian.

Software engineering was one of the biggest and best-paying professions in the US in 2022, with 1.5 million practitioners earning twice the national median salary, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Pay had risen amid escalating talent wars, during which companies offered bonuses of up to hundreds of thousands of dollars to snag and retain top programmers….

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