For many months now, I’ve been reading through social media, and it’s hard not to get the impression that a single tone often dominates the IT world: anxiety. Many people fear layoffs tied to developers—and others—being replaced by AI agents. Many are attacking this new direction, trying to undermine the quality of solutions delivered by AI.
However, I want to look at this entire situation from a different perspective. Because what many see as a "crisis" today, is something entirely different to me.
It’s simply the next shift in the level of abstraction.
History likes to repeat itself
If we look at the history of software engineering, we will notice a recurring pattern. Everything constantly shifts toward automation and giving up control:
- In the beginning, there was Assembler: Developers controlled every CPU register and every byte of memory. Writing code was an almost physical craft.
- Then came high-level languages: C, Java, Python. We handed over direct control of the CPU to compilers and interpreters. Many purists argued back then that "real programming is over."
- Next came the era of frameworks: We stopped writing HTTP mechanisms, ORMs, or routing from scratch. We handed control over to Spring, React, or .NET to focus strictly on the business logic itself.
Every single time, the scenario was the same: developers handed a piece of manual control "higher up" to be able to build bigger, faster, and more complex things.
AI agents are not the end of IT. They are just another framework.
Today, we are facing the exact same process. We are starting to give up control to AI agents that code entire modules or refactor systems. And this is the inevitable direction that IT technology will follow.
The market is simply drastically changing the rules of the game and verifying who we really are:
- The end of code monkeys: If your only skill was mechanically translating documentation into code, then yes—AI will do it faster and cheaper.
- The rising role of architects: Today, a developer's job looks less and less like writing lines of code from scratch, and more and more like supervising autonomous agents, connecting architectural pieces, and managing a clean workflow.
- Business and communication above all: Since code is becoming a readily available commodity, those who win are the ones who can manage requirements, talk to stakeholders, and understand business processes.
New times
For us engineers, this is no reason to panic, but a signal to take action. Instead of crying over the past, it’s time to accept the new level of abstraction, master the tools, and map out a new strategy. The IT market isn't dying. It just took another step forward.
