According to Gartner experts, 80% of software developers may lose their employment to AI if they don’t upgrade their skills.

According to researchers at Gartner Inc., in order to keep their jobs during the generative AI boom, more than 80% of software engineers will need to learn new skills like retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and natural-language prompt engineering.

The multinational research group stated in a recently released note that AI would create new jobs for software engineers rather than replace them. “Brash assertions about AI’s capabilities have sparked conjecture that it may eventually replace human engineers or even lessen their need […].” Although AI will change the role of software engineers in the future, complicated, innovative software will always require human creativity and skill, according to Philip Walsh, a senior principal analyst at Gartner.

“This investment will require organizations to upskill data engineering and platform engineering teams to adopt tools and processes that drive continuous integration and development for AI artifacts,” Walsh added, highlighting the need of funding AI developer platforms.

The following three phases of AI’s influence on software development were outlined by the US-based IT research and consultancy firm:
In the short term, artificial intelligence (AI) technologies will function within limitations, which implies that they will improve productivity by streamlining the workflows of current software engineers. Later, when AI agents completely automate jobs performed by software programmers, they will push the envelope. The majority of code will henceforth be produced by AI rather than by humans.

In order to “meet the rapidly increasing demand for AI-empowered software,” companies will want to hire qualified software developers as AI engineering becomes more efficient over time.

Regarding current trends, according to a poll conducted by Gartner among 300 organizations in the US and the UK, almost 56% of software engineers thought that the position of an AI/ML engineer was the most in-demand. According to reports, the majority of them also admitted that they were not proficient in integrating AI/ML into apps.

One potentially powerful application of generative technology is the generation of code by AI. With the release of GitHub Copilot and Anthropic’s Claude, this has resulted in a boom in AI coding tools. Last month, Supermaven, an AI coding firm, generated a lot of buzz by raising $12 million in its first round of outside funding, which was headed by Bessemer Venture Partners.

The value of AI in coding is still debatable, though. Research has indicated a decrease in the caliber of code produced by AI models. Furthermore, there’s no assurance that using AI coding tools would increase productivity. None of the 800 software developers surveyed by GitHub Copilot saw any increases in productivity. Even worse, they claimed that when they used the AI coding aid to develop code, the number of defects in pull requests increased by 41%.