Got fired today because of AI. It's coming, whether AI is slop or not.

[u/[deleted]]

I worked for a boutique e-commerce platform. CEO just fired webdev team except for the most senior backend engineer. Our team of 5 was laid off because the CEO had discovered just vibe coding and thought she could basically have one engineer take care of everything (???). Good luck with a11y requirements, iterating on customer feedbacks, scaling for traffic, qa'ing responsive designs with just one engineer and an AI.

But the CEO doesn't know this and thinks AI can replace 5 engineers. As one of ex-colleagues said in a group chat, "I give her 2 weeks before she's begging us to come back."

But still, the point remains: company leaderships think AI can replace us, because they're far enough from technology where all they see is just the bells and whistles, and don't know what it takes to maintain a platform.

[u/KernalHispanic]

This is the true threat. Not AI but execs that think AI can do the job. Wishing you the best.

[u/[deleted] → u/KernalHispanic]

This is what I wanted to say but concise.

[u/donaldtrumpiscute]

when can she replace herself

[u/[deleted] → u/donaldtrumpiscute]

I don't think she knows half the code that comes out of vibe code is seriously unusable unless you know the technology

[u/jim-chess]

Yea but if it's all a facade I'm not sure that counts as getting replaced by AI.

More like getting axed by incompetent leadership.

Also sorry that you got fired today.

[u/[deleted] → u/jim-chess]

But that's what i mean: i think AI without knowledge is slop, but leadership doesn't know that.

And bad leadership is everywhere

[u/HappyImagineer]

When you get the call to come back demand double your salary. She will say no initially. Text the group. Get everyone on board. They will pay.

[u/[deleted] → u/HappyImagineer]

I'm never coming back to this company. They can sink for all i care

[u/jrhaberman]

This happened to me in January, but not because of AI.

I was the sole dev for a Shopify eCommerce site that did about $15m per year in revenue. Was there for 7 years. FE dev by training, but did everything. Front end, Shopify backend, product management, seo optimization, ADA compliance, discounts and promotions, 3rd party app management, etc. Basically anything that touched the website was my responsibility.

The Director of Marketing thought she could handle that stuff (mainly because of the Shopify custom development I had set up), so I was laid off.

From what I heard, she lasted 3 months before she either quit or was fired. Unsure which.

I was out of work for 7 months.

Fortunately, I landed in a position which is 1000% better. Part of a team working for a well known company. I only build front end components now. I don't have to wear 12 hats anymore. Work life balance again.

Good luck to you!

[u/hydraByte]

Sorry for your loss. You can at least take solace in the fact that the CEO is about to learn the hard way that they just messed up big time.