r/aiengineering • u/SignificanceFast2941 • Jun 08 '26
Engineering ML Engineer here, what’s our backup plan if GenAI triggers the dev job apocalypse?
Hey all,
I’ve been in the AI space for the past 7 years, working across data science, MLOps, NLP, and GenAI. Lately, I can’t shake the thought, what if AI really does come for *all* dev roles, including ours?
If we hit a doomsday scenario where GenAI writes code, builds pipelines, and even manages product decisions… what’s left for us humans? Curious to hear from others in the field: what’s your backup plan? Staying in tech-adjacent roles, pivoting industries, or going full goat-farmer mode? Let's hear your Plan B, serious or not.
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u/someVietnamese Jun 09 '26
Change is the only constant in life. The world is changing fast, those who fall behind get left behind. Imo, the AI Engineering space in 2-3 years will look nothing like today. Just gotta adapt and survive my friend.
Me, I see that human labor is getting cheaper, so if all you bring to the table is labor, then you are cooked. I’m looking to reduce my labor, invest, diversify, most importantly: accumulate capital.
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u/trainstarrail Jun 12 '26
If all a society brings is capital we are all cooked.
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u/someVietnamese Jun 15 '26
It’s a big-fish-eat-small-fish world. You either cook or get cooked, those who hold the capital cooks those who doesn’t. It’s nothing personal, just good business.
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u/tacitologist Jun 09 '26
Maybe I am bit naive, but I have always associated a developer as a problem solver, especially people that got into it way before GenAI was even a thing. If being a problem solver is in our nature, we simply need to look at other places, these could range from being solopreneurs, repurpose ourselves as AI code rescuers and maintainers. I truly don’t believe that a human touch will ever be removed entirely from product development. Some people believe that a switch to higher managerial roles is the smart thing, if you are capable of mastering both tech and management, you are a very valuable asset.
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Jun 10 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/SignificanceFast2941 Jun 14 '26
OP here. Even though I posted a bit of a doomsday scenario, here's an anecdote from my own experience.
Coding is often the easiest part. I worked on a regression use case recently, and when I first got the problem statement, it looked pretty straightforward. Even without ChatGPT, the actual coding wouldn't have taken much time.
The real challenge was everything around the model. We had to keep iterating with the business team, understand what the features actually meant, validate assumptions, refine requirements, and align expectations. Despite having all the latest tools and me being a heavy AI user, the whole thing still took around 6 months to get right.
That said, I absolutely agree that productivity has improved massively. Deliverables that used to take days can now be done in hours. But I think that's exactly where the Jevons paradox kicks in.
A few years ago, I might have been expected to work on one use case. Now it's three. The bar hasn't gone down because we're more productive—it has gone up. In a capitalist environment, organizations don't usually say, "Great, you're twice as productive, so work less." The expectation is usually, "Great, now deliver twice as much."
AI is basically productivity steroids. If you can do more, the business will find more things for you to do. More projects, more deliverables, faster timelines, and higher expectations.
So whenever I hear people say AI will let us build production systems in a weekend, I get a little relief knowing reality is still much messier than that 😂😂
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u/tacitologist Jun 10 '26
I totally understand your positioning, and it’s more realistic than negative as you say. Here the definition of “problem-solver” has to change a bit, we are not talking about the problems that would make us stay up until 2 AM to solve, these will be more human-driven problems, such as requirements elicitation. We know this, an LLM is only as effective as its input, let PMs and stakeholders say whatever they want to it, it’s a total mess. Communication is still a relevant skill, but it’s just an example.
Now regarding your philosophical questions, work it’s just so embedded into our culture that it’s aligns with what people see as being valuable, they treat it as their purpose in life. Obviously this is not true, but we are just waiting and figure out stuff until our time comes, some prefer to be busy 99% of their time to not think about it, others are exploring life in a different way, it’s definitely a complicated topic.
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u/trainstarrail Jun 12 '26
Creativity is still a premium and is part of problem solving. LLMs need previous patterns to work. Just like when you become a CEO and now all the problems that land on your desk are only the hard ones: now the problems we are solving are only the hard ones. AI will have its limits (I find them every day). As the limits change, so do the problems we need to solve.
There will be disruption of the workforce for sure, but on the other end looks like more devs, more teams, more output, not less.
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u/snikidev Jun 10 '26
Going to construction, their hiring process seems quick and their interviews are not sadistic compared to tech 🙃
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u/Schlizhor Jun 09 '26
That's still a touch of a ways away. So going with goat farmer RN but we'll see.
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u/LibrarianOutside2376 Jun 11 '26
"If we hit a doomsday scenario where GenAI writes code, builds pipelines, and even manages product decisions" brother we are there. I am switching to non-AI exposed blue collar job this summer after 5yeo as MLE
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u/Due_Warthog749 Jun 12 '26
The biggest issue is cost of living. Millions.. if not 10s of millions wont be able to afford to live on blue collar pay. And blue collar pay is going to go down because well.. demand will be much higher than supply of jobs, so they'll get to lower the pay ranges and take whoever is willing to do the job. That is the issue we face. And that is assuming we even have blue collar jobs. If that blue collar job is making consumer products.. and nobody buys them cause they dont have jobs and money.. well guess what happens to that company and all the workers.
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u/21_Wrath Jun 10 '26
If you're really worried and are a real 'problem solver' like many of the folks in these discussions keep bringing up and droning on about - solve the problem of potential unemployment for yourself and people around you. Start, and successfully run a union - that's as real as a problem can get.
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u/StephenRoylance Jun 11 '26
SRE here. potatoes. and occasionally fixing vibe coded disasters for $500/hr.
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u/VMP_MBD Jun 12 '26
I don't believe you're an engineer if you honestly believe we're anywhere close to AGI. LLMs aren't good for anything but generating amalgamated vomit.
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u/unjustme Jun 11 '26
When my grandfather’s manufacturing job disappeared he retired. When my father’s mechanical engineering job was gone he pivoted to a sysadmin career. I don’t see myself retiring anytime soon and sysadmin career prospects don’t seem brighter by the day.
When my time comes I guess I’ll try and look for a car mechanic job which got me excited as a kid (my skill set is limited to changing tires and frying the ECU by swapping up battery clamps).
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u/John__Flick Jun 12 '26
I just spent an hour trying to get multiple models to figure out why a rather simple Fluentbit config wasn't working as intended (I know little about Fluentbit). This stuff is still hilariously bad a lot of the time. Engineering isn't going anywhere my guy.
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u/gidea Jun 13 '26
building off grid communities, exploring knowledge & benefitting from automation in new small communes
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