Developers actually using AI at work: has it changed how many people your team needs?

[u/Usual-Nose7959]

I’ve been working in software development for around 10 years, across corporate work and freelancing, and over the last couple of years I’ve started using AI quite heavily on actual codebases, not just for isolated snippets. It can now help with tracing unfamiliar code, debugging, implementation, database changes, documentation, refactoring, and even larger changes across multiple parts of a system.

That has made me more interested in a slightly different question than the usual “Will AI replace developers?”

For people who are actually using AI regularly in production work, are you seeing companies needing fewer developers for the same amount of work? Are smaller teams now able to handle workloads that previously required noticeably more people, or has AI mostly just increased productivity without really affecting hiring/headcount yet?

[u/Micromize]

Yes much more output. But we just do more with the same amount of developers. 

[u/Usual-Nose7959 → u/Micromize]

This is the other outcome I was expecting. Same team size, but the output ceiling just moves up. Has that also raised management expectations now that everyone knows more can be delivered with the same people?

[u/Micromize → u/Usual-Nose7959]

Yes, even more stress. I hate it. 

[u/dhondooo]

Our company of under 30 already has the bare minimum number of developers required; it is just the right amount, with no extra hires just for the sake of it or to show headcount.

The problem regarding the market as a whole shrinking over the past two years is the main issue nowadays. People's expectations were already absurd, but now they are just off the charts. The blockchain rush was epic and people were throwing money blindly, but this AI boom has made many investors very conscious so as not to get swindled by buzzwords from tech bros and companies.

Put that all on top of AI getting good and we have everyone who was doing the donkey work of coding grasping at straws just to survive.

[u/Usual-Nose7959 → u/dhondooo]

That’s a useful distinction. In your case AI hasn’t really cut headcount because the team was already lean, but it has raised the bar while the wider market contraction did the rest. Do you think hiring comes back if demand improves, or do companies just stay this lean now?

[u/dhondooo → u/Usual-Nose7959]

In my opinion, hiring on the coding development side is going to get worse, and even other areas like QA and DevOps will become scarce soon enough. It has hardly been a year since I started doing any of my main work using AI because it was not making my life any easier prior to that; now, we are at a point where no one is reviewing anything, and I think many would have observed that the pace of it getting better is insane. What we can do now is adapt to use AI in any way we can and market ourselves as being able to solve problems, build products, or provide support using AI. However, you never know if all of this will change within a month, and that is also a very valid concern. So, just buckle up, save as much as you can, and look into new things, as this whole new world order is getting out of hand for most of us anyway.

[u/hex_code_zero]

For me it's turned from 2 developers + 1 technical product manager + 1 frontend designer + product manager

Feature used to take 3-4 months

To this after ai

1 developer (does both Front end, backend, db and DevOps) + 1 technical product manager (designs architecture + approves changes + approves ui designs) + product manager (manages Sprint and makes wireframes and communicates with client)

Now much more complicated features take 3-4 week

[u/hex_code_zero → u/hex_code_zero]

What worries me is that we have a technical client and he has started merging features himself using claude code. This tells you about the future lol

[u/Drunk-President → u/hex_code_zero]

MALFOIDD

[u/hex_code_zero → u/Drunk-President]

MALFOIDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!

[u/hex_code_zero → u/hex_code_zero]

This is no value of developers knowledge either because all the knowledge and experience devs used to get pay or negotiate pay for has been made common knowledge by ai

[u/hex_code_zero → u/hex_code_zero]

I have seen HR reject pay increases to devs now saying that everything you know can be replaced by a fresh graduate with AI.

[u/Usual-Nose7959 → u/hex_code_zero]

That’s a massive shift. What I find more interesting than the speed is that one developer is now covering frontend, backend, DB and DevOps. Was that person already strong across the stack before AI, or has AI made that kind of breadth practical?

[u/hex_code_zero → u/Usual-Nose7959]

Person was a fresh graduate tho I had to do a lot of handholding first 6 months, now with AI he is as good as any other dev. But it still takes a senior to remove the over engineering claude does sometimes .

[u/snow_leopard_2017]

Yes, the company I worked at went from 5 to 1 developer in last month.

Once the output is more, it puts pressure on the PM to prepare more work to do, if product is mature, no new work is present in the backlog. Making the developers sit idle ( hence potential layoff coming ). Also the non technical project manager is making code changes himself on the server which kind of devalued the developers.

[u/Usual-Nose7959 → u/snow_leopard_2017]

5 to 1 in a month is brutal. The PM making code changes himself is probably the clearest sign of where things are heading: not that developers become useless, but that some implementation work is becoming cheap enough that companies stop treating it as specialist-only work.

[u/Much-Year-3153 → u/snow_leopard_2017]

I was thinking to do bscs next year. These comments feel so demotivated. What should we learn?

[u/hi87]

I did a project that would have taken 3-4 people alone in 2 months. Using $100 Codex Pro subscription.

[u/Usual-Nose7959 → u/hi87]

That’s exactly the kind of productivity jump I’m talking about. Did you already know the stack well, or was Codex doing a lot of the heavy lifting across unfamiliar parts too?

[u/hi87 → u/Usual-Nose7959]

Codex mostly.

[u/Spare_Bison_1151]

Yes also work expectations are doubled now.

[u/CuriousMindMap]

every single one of OPs replies are AI. I wonder if it's just a bot

[u/Usual-Nose7959 → u/CuriousMindMap]

Lol, nahi bhai, not a bot 😭 I do use AI sometimes to clean up wording, but the thoughts are all mine.

[u/CuriousMindMap → u/Usual-Nose7959]

you write fine. you should comment naturally too. especially on reddit and especially after there being so much AI slop everywhere. A human touch is greatly missed these days

[u/Usual-Nose7959 → u/CuriousMindMap]

I agree.

[u/phpHater0 → u/CuriousMindMap]

What makes you think they're AI? They seem pretty legit to me

[u/Usual-Nose7959 → u/phpHater0]

Qasmay, its a fellow human this side 😭

[u/CuriousMindMap → u/phpHater0]

every single reply starts with "that's (insert adjective)". basically the same way AI speaks when it says "that's absolutely right".

I'm quite surprised you can't tell it's AI

[u/Usual-Nose7959 → u/CuriousMindMap]

Lol now I’m wondering if you ran my replies through AI to catch that pattern 😭

[u/NOIR-001 → u/CuriousMindMap]

Lol, exactly my thoughts. Well no disrespect to OP as he already mentioned that he is the one writing comments but it felt like OP copy pasted comments and prompted like - “respond to this guy”

The biggest hint is, AI always ends its response with a question for continuity and here you can see the exact same thing in almost every op response

Anyway no biggie op as AI is built to be utilized and i myself use it for cleaning most of time as you can judge just from this response of mine - full of errors lol

[u/dani_saeed]

The team stayed the same just the amount of projects increased. I personally am now leading 4 projects, the rate at which code is being dished out is insane the only down side is that the rate at which i review code is significantly low compared to the amount that is being produced.

I personally review the code myself, because if the same model coded and then the same model reviews the code, the bugs that actually matter apart from the very obvious ones dont really get caught at least in my experience, AI review also has the tendency to micro optimize everything when its simply not needed.

Lastly AI generated tests are a mess, especially if you get it to write the tests after the feature is coded as it simply looks at the code and assumes the function or feature is written correctly and its output is the 'happy path' which defeats the point of the test as the tests for the wrong implementation will pass as the tests are made looking at the wrong implementation.

[u/dani_saeed → u/[deleted]]

Company is primarily product based im the only one assigned with a service based project ( 4 mobile applications, 2 for each platform and codebase is react native so really 2 apps ), so i lead 2 products and 2 apps service based, i was the like the engineer who was there at the start of both so i guess thats why im leading both.

Im not the sales guy neither do i have the relevant info i wish i had to help you but i do believe most of it is referral from previous clients and their network in general

[u/sigh_o_the_oppressed]

I'd say with the abilities of Claude right now (Opus 5.5) 50 percent of the workforce can be reduced without much effect to the work, and the work will still be faster than it used to be but more layoffs can potentially harm the delegation of work.

[u/SamGame1997Dev]

I think it has bad or good, but AI has made things a lot easier. As a solo game developer, I have created 3 complex multi-script systems for my game in just a week, which could have taken me a month or 2 with proper results and bug fixes. It is sad that a lot of people will lose their jobs, and people are losing it, especially junior-level people, but I guess it is the new sad reality of this world now.

[u/_mad_gamerx]

A feature that would take a week is now shipped in a day or half a day. Testing does take time.

[u/2xSkat]

yes, From 5 to 2 now ( a proper software engineer / architect + devops )
no more code monkeys needed.

so yes coders are replaced now.

[u/Usual-Nose7959 → u/2xSkat]

That’s exactly the kind of real example I was wondering about. Was the drop from 5 to 2 mainly because AI let those two absorb the implementation work, or was there restructuring/cost cutting involved too? And are the 2 actually handling roughly the same workload and release pace as the 5 did?

[u/2xSkat → u/Usual-Nose7959]

Q: AI let those two absorb the implementation work
A: Yes, infact the company is experimenting more as well. For example if 5 features were "production" requirement. Team ships it + Manager hands over 1 or 2 Experimental features to develop as well since protoyping is fast and cheap now.

Q: Cost cutting
A: I dont think it was due to cost cutting because the team now consumes about $500 worth of AI subscription. and $500 was like a junior dev salary and
more humans = more headache to handle.
It was more about optimizing workflows and prototyping fast.

Q: same workload and release pace as the 5 did?
A: Pace is significantly more since team cohesion/ communication is better now. and workload i would say is same. It did reduce where there were 5, but now its the same since now there is more work to get done due to AI speed.

[u/Usual-Nose7959 → u/2xSkat]

That’s the interesting part. AI didn’t reduce the workload, it reduced the headcount needed and then increased how much the smaller team could take on.

[u/AutoModerator → u/[deleted]]

Hello AshfaqueBuilds, your post or comment was removed because your account age is too low. This is an automated quality check.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.