A note to my Developer colleagues: AI will not take your job. Because indeed, writing software is much more than just ‘coding’ (and frankly AI isnt great at that just yet anyway).
Having spent my career in QA, I’ve seen this before. First for me was Test Automation – “we can replace all our QA with automation! Automate all the things!” The layoffs came. The quality tanked. The market corrected. Companies setup Quality Organizations to account. Some companies still go through this phase today. You learn to see it coming.
AI is the new wave. “AI can test our product!” – but it can’t, not to a reasonable degree. It won’t stop the layoffs. The collapse of QA organizations.
… but they’ll be back. Because there’s more to software then coding.
Developers – welcome to the ebb and flow of ‘automation’ hype. You’ve been more insulated from it for a while. But you’ll adjust – having to attest to your soft skills and the human side of your career. It comes in waves.
Now it is important that when the market corrects, there will be new skills to have. Rarely do you see a purely ‘manual QA’ position or ‘QA analyst’ role these days. Most are mixed, expecting a degree of automation work.
AI will come with the same upskill – learn it, understand it, be ready and able to use it.
But you won’t be replaced by it.