The disrupters have been disrupted.
After decades of upending industries with their coding, software engineers are now the ones on the defensive.
Developers saw their roles change drastically overnight after coding agents improved significantly late last year. Now there's a full-on reckoning for a profession that's historically more lucrative and stable than most, writes BI's Hugh Langley for the first story in our new series, "The Great Coding Reset."
Not everyone is terrified of losing their job. Some engineers are finding themselves more productive than ever thanks to their AI copilots. Others are trying to learn soft skills they view as more AI-proof.
The only constant is that everyone recognizes something has changed and is adjusting accordingly.
Coding's great reckoning is happening as Corporate America undergoes an overhaul.
The push for flatter, efficient organizations dovetails nicely with the democratization of coding. Dave in sales doesn't need to waste a month on countless meetings with product managers and technologists describing a new tool he wants. Now he can vibe code it himself.
That's exactly the autonomy lots of organizations want from their workers in the age of AI. Especially for tiny teams, it's easy to see how those AI tools could supercharge workflows.
But what about larger orgs where there are 500 — or even 5,000 — Daves in sales building their own tools? How does a company keep tabs on that?
Someone needs to know what those tools do. Someone needs to make sure they're secure. Someone needs to monitor the costs. Someone needs to determine whether they're creating value or just generating more AI slop.
That's a lot of governance for an era supposedly defined by fewer managers and flatter organizations. But at this rate, someone's already vibe coding a solution for that.