As AI tools become increasingly autonomous, the role of software builders now relies heavily on steering agents who work for them. This steering, often means checking what AI has done and ensuring that it meets the desired standard. This, I argue, is the least fun part of software development. Ask any software developer and you will get the same answer - code reviews are not fun. They are also very hard to get right. Understanding someone else’s thinking and then parsing through their code to check for expected output, possible issues or missed edge-cases is an extremely tedious process.
I am aware that agents can assist humans in reviewing code. In fact, agents can fully automate reviews. More so, you can now start with a product spec and let an agent (or set of agents) loose to build the entire product end-to-end. You can also setup agents to continuously monitor bug reports or feature requests and autonomously raise pull requests. These will be reviewed, approved and merged by another set of agents. At that point, what exactly is software development? When we have given up full control of the development lifecycle and, in worst cases, only agents can understand or update code.
Mind you, all of this is great from a builder and product standpoint. I am a Product Manager and I love the ability to independently develop end-to-end prototypes, have bug reports addressed the same day, or a big feature to be implemented in days, rather than weeks. But I started my career as a software developer and I wonder that if I were starting off today, I would definitely find things a lot more productive. But would I find it “fun”?
I did enjoy sitting with a particularly hard problem, trying out different ways, searching for solutions online, watching related tech talks, and failing some more until it all finally clicks. There is that Aha! moment. The code runs and it does exactly what you wanted it to do. And in this process I’d probably learn a few new things and, more importantly, what not to do. All of this was fun to me. With AI, most of this is gone.
This is not rant against AI. It is a big shift in the way software is built. I recognize that and see its value. But with each such shift, some jobs change drastically. By no means am I saying that software development will go away. But what software development means has changed drastically. When assembly lines started taking over car manufacturing in 1920s, car making changed from handmade coach building to a specialized industrial profession. It went from craft to skilled labor. Of course, the throughput, quality, and reliability of cars improved. But I would imagine that, for some workers, the car making job became less fun.
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