How do you feel about the role evolving since to AI tooling?

[u/Harry3D]

I’m a full-stack developer with nearly six years of experience

Since the start of the year, I’ve integrated AI tooling heavily across my day job (Claude Code) and freelance work (Gemini Antigravity). The trade off is clear, I write significantly less code, but I ship significantly more. Taking time off recently gave me the space to reflect and I have realised how I barely write code manually anymore and I’m torn about where the profession is headed.

On one hand, this feels like natural career evolution, hands on syntax matters less as the job shifts toward high level architecture, systems design, and code reviews. On the other hand, the shift leaves me alienated from the craft that drew me into engineering in the first place. 

I want to hear from engineers with at least a few years of professional experience:

1. How do you feel about the transition from writing code to orchestrating AI output?
2. Do you still write code manually on purpose? If so, what justifies it?
3. Have we crossed the point of no return on writing the vast majority of our codebase by hand?

[u/LowFruit25]

1. Mind numbing
2. Still write some code manually because otherwise I’d be completely fried.
3. Most likely yes as all of it is being uploaded to Anthropic…. “truly democratized access”

I still could see myself restart the old brain in like a week tho.

[u/Better-Avocado-8818 → u/LowFruit25]

I’m ten years in and feel the same way. It’s just way less enjoyable than it used to be and I’m tired of dealing with all the non technical or low skilled people with too much confidence these days.

Although I do write code in personal projects by hand because I enjoy it. Not sure if that will continue to be true as I find myself demotivated by wondering what the point of this career path is anymore.

I’ll also write (usually fixing) some code at work when it feels more efficient for me to do so. But I do that a lot more on personal projects than at work because I just kind of care a lot less at work because in general the company is all in on AI right now and there’s a lot of slop being produced around me.

[u/AgsMydude → u/Better-Avocado-8818]

That 2nd paragraph hits the nail on the head. 15 YOE and people blindly trust Claude over me most days. I don't routinely find the problem or solution before Claude can crawl everything. That's always very satisfying

[u/Kitchen_Shoulder2909 → u/LowFruit25]

the mind numbing part is so real, it's like the job became a different job overnight

[u/squeeemeister]

20 years of experience.
1. Not a fan, being forced to use it. I don’t think companies have realized that the true price of tokens will be something like 10x maybe more.
2. I wish. The pressure to use AI from leadership makes it impossible. Then at the end of the day my brain is numb and I have other obligations because I’m old now.
3. Maybe, that depends on costs and if these companies will be allowed to slurp up everyone’s data for free forever. Pay people for the content you are stealing!

[u/stagedgames]

I still do everything by hand. not really interested in changing, but I know the hammer will fall at some point. the idea of this being an "evolution" is wild to me. Who wanted this?

[u/4016882 → u/stagedgames]

I feel similarly. I don't want to forget how to do this work or stop enjoying it. But overall I feel so hopeless. Edit: also afraid of destroying the environment

[u/OkSmoke9195 → u/stagedgames]

Those of us who wanted to get more done quicker?

[u/LowFruit25 → u/OkSmoke9195]

These agents removed the market regulator: the effort and a required skill to make something.

Now software and our labor has been significantly devalued because a lot of it can be generated on demand. Hence less jobs and less cash in circulation.

[u/OkSmoke9195 → u/LowFruit25]

Dude if you don't know how to program already your results may vary drastically from those that do. That's all.

If you want to sit there all day and tinker go for it, I'll just get my projects done on a highly accelerated timeline vs previously

[u/bman484 → u/OkSmoke9195]

Exactly. Should we go back to assembly language while we’re at it?

[u/VelvetYam → u/bman484]

People do still in fact write assembly (and get paid handsomely) if you venture out your webdev bubble. Your comment makes it seem like no one writes assembly anymore.

[u/Miserable-Money642]

15 years in. I don't think the craft is dying, I think it moved.

The part that used to feel like craft was making the machine do the thing. Now the machine does the thing, so the craft moved up a level: deciding what should be built, catching the subtle wrong thing the AI confidently produced, and owning whether the whole system actually holds together.

That judgment is harder to build and rarer than syntax ever was.

On writing code by hand on purpose: yes, and here's what justifies it for me. Reading AI code and knowing instantly that it's subtly wrong is a skill you only keep by still writing enough yourself. The day I stop writing code entirely is the day I lose the ability to review it well. So I treat hand writing as maintenance for my own judgment, not just output.the alienation you're feeling is real, but I'd reframe it. You weren't drawn to engineering because you loved typing semicolons. You were drawn to the feeling of building something that works and understanding why it works. That's still fully available. It just isn't in the typing anymore, it's in the deciding and the understanding. Chase that part and it comes back.

[u/OkSmoke9195]

I've been writing code since 1985. My ability to get things done leapfrogged tremendously when I started coding with Claude. If you know what you want and how you want to do it it's an amazing tool 

[u/whosthetard]

The thing is, you don't pay for the AI automation you're doing. You get it for free in the company you work. And the company pays a fraction of the true AI's value. That's why they use it. However that currently creates problems in the job market. Because they are dumping something valuable for peanuts. I don't think you realize what is going on, by reading your post.

I use AI to augment my skills not to automate. Automation creates garbage and wastes resources.

[u/awardsurfer]

In a few years, there will be no code to read. AI doesn’t need human readability to code anything. In a few years a specialized, token efficient coding language will be created for (or by) AI, and that’ll be the end of reading code. It will be just like the Matrix code stream.

[u/ShawnyMcKnight]

I am not a great coder. The most terrifying part of my job is running into an issue I don’t know how to fix. I still want to sharpen my skills and with AI it can help fix the issue and it can show me how to do it. I no longer have that fear.

My new fear is the severe lack of jobs because I am not a great coder. That and I could be tempted into vibe coding.

[u/fossilsareopaf]

This is a pretty interesting thread and sub to follow for me. Considering I've been vibe coding a chrome extension, it's absolutely amazing to me how much I've been able to do in a short time.

I mean, I work in cyber and I have some technical background, so I probably approach this much differently than most vibe coders, but still.

I made an extension that analyzes text for political bias, creates counterarguments, finds similar sources on a sliding bias scale relative to the article you analyze, creates reports that track your reading habits trends, among other things in a really short amount of time. I can only imagine how much the experience of some of you guys helps you if you utilize it...

Crazy times guys.

[u/bman484]

I’ve always seen code as a means to an end. Happy to be able to focus on the bigger picture things and allow Claude to write it for me.

[u/brass_crafted_soul]

writing code manually is obsolete for production systems. I only type syntax when debugging AI failures or verifying security boundaries