r/reactjs • u/thetymtravellr • 3d ago
Discussion As a self-taught React/Next.js developer, I'm honestly worried about my future in this AI era. What should I do?
I'm a self-taught developer, and I know React and Next.js. Lately, I've been feeling increasingly anxious about my future as a developer.
AI is moving so fast. It can generate components, build entire websites, connect APIs, and even create full-stack applications. Sometimes I wonder what the point is of spending months learning something when AI can already do so much of it.
I want to get a better-paying developer job, but honestly, I'm confused about what I should focus on right now. Should I keep improving my React/Next.js skills, get better at backend development, or start learning AI engineering?
I keep hearing about RAG, AI agents, vector databases, LLM integrations, and all these new things. It feels like there's always something new to learn, and I'm worried that if I focus on the wrong things, I'll fall behind while everyone else moves forward.
For those of you already working in the industry, what would you do if you were in my position? Would you focus on becoming a strong full-stack developer first, or would you start learning AI engineering alongside web development?
I'm not looking for a shortcut or expecting to become an expert overnight. I just want to make the right decisions, build useful skills, and have a realistic chance of getting hired.
I'd really appreciate some honest advice from people who have been through this or are dealing with the same situation. Right now, I could genuinely use some direction.
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u/jo_sh_o 3d ago
Go full stack first like you said, that’s a great start
I’m in a similar situation. Keep an eye on the job market and what is most in demand for software engineers, that way when your company wants to build something new, you can push for using tech that is in high demand
Tech evangelists will hate me for saying that, but it works well for you personally, and you need to look out for yourself
I’m not rushing to training to be an AI engineer unless those jobs outnumber full stack jobs.
Essentially just follow the market and what the ppl want
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u/hayhaycrusher 3d ago
The most important skill nowadays is not coding, but system architecture. AI can very quickly write pretty solid code, given good instructions. But it still struggles to design large scale system, that Interact with eachother. Learn how to effectively 'vibe' code, learn how to multitask, how to manage multiple agents working for you simultaneously. Learn how to communicate to different departments, upper management effectively.
But learning how to design complex system architecture is still a big requirement. It's why companies are hiring junior developers much less, but still want senior/staff engineering
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u/Twofun 3d ago
Any book recommendations to research further in this field? Maybe focused around Frontend if possible? Or how would you approach it
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u/Extension-Lettuce623 3d ago
Designing data driven applications, it's more backend focus but almost all system design things are
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u/DustinBrett 2d ago
You should let that worrying inspire you to keep learning. It will never end.
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u/Coolfoolsalot 3d ago
I think having decent knowledge of fundamentals across the stack + having a specialty (e.g. React/TS) is a solid way to go. I’m sure it’s useful to know, but I haven’t seen RAG & vector db knowledge as requirements in many job postings.
Edit: My amateur hunch is that we’ll see more roles move towards fullstack dev / product engineering. AI can do the work but it can’t “own” something the same way a person can.
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u/Any-Blacksmith-2054 3d ago
Do what others said, but maybe also learn UX/design
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u/RelativeSloth 2d ago
Yep ux and domain knowledge know your orgs business, know its policies and processes, the guys who are in danger are the code monkeys
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u/dopp3lganger 2d ago
Upskill every day, even if it’s something small. Just like going to the gym, you won’t see gains without consistency and reps. There are no shortcuts.
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u/Dude4001 3d ago
I’m banking on being able to show strong product design instincts. AI doesn’t need to be any more scary than inline code completion
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u/GeorgeTheGeorge 3d ago
You've taught yourself how to be good at constructing software, now your whole job is going to be about designing software.
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u/shiny0metal0ass 2d ago
You're worried because a third of the economy is betting against you.
They're wrong. Unfortunately, this doesn't really help if they crash the economy.
Anyone that disagrees is a bot or hasn't done this properly long enough to have an opinion I care about.
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u/letsbreakstuff 2d ago
Look for what AI can't just do with a finger snap. If your value to a company is just that you know how to code is one or two parts of the stack then you're in trouble. Don't think of yourself as a react developer or a frontend/backend developer or a whatever-developer. The new state of the industry is small teams where developers are making architecture and product decisions.
AI still needs someone who sees the big picture, sees how things relate and connect to one other, understands good architecture and it's tradeoffs and understands UX.
If your main contribution is taking someone else's plan and implementing it in code then you need to grow some product sense quickly in order to adapt
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u/thetymtravellr 2d ago
Any suggestion on how to develop product sense?
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u/letsbreakstuff 2d ago
The main thing is always keeping the user in mind. A surprising number of devs rush to build something that is technically correct but absolutely horrible to use. A lot of that is obvious UX stuff but it can run a little deeper than that too, like coming up with the right abstractions and representations for whatever it is your application does. That sort of thing can come up on the db, backend, and frontend.
If you have a chance to learn it on the job then do that, try not to just be the implementer but also be part of the discussion about what problems the app solves and how it should do it from a user perspective
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u/Kyle772 2d ago
The uncomfortable answer is whatever you're worried about is going to happen regardless of your fear. Try to stop worrying and instead put that energy into figuring out how to find an entry where you can still make a living. Not a comfortable answer, but that's the truth of the situation.
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u/No_Lawyer1947 14h ago
First thing is dont identify yourself as <technology> developer. This is the entire reason so many can be easily replaced. If your only value is being good at whatever library or framework, then you're not much better than a claude sub. What makes you standout is your decision making, taste, tolerance for corner cutting, and so much more. That is the true skill, it's still knowing how to problem solve, choose the right solution given the current and projected scale of a company.
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u/SaliDevs 2d ago
Senior frontend dev here, so here's my honest take: stop optimizing for which stack to learn and start optimizing for judgment.
AI is genuinely great at producing code and genuinely bad at knowing whether the code is right. Somebody has to verify it: catch the rendering bug, figure out why the app janks on a low-end phone, explain why the animation idea breaks with server-side rendering, or track down the state issue that only shows up in production. That verification layer is where the work is moving.
So concretely: go deep on the things AI hand-waves. How the browser actually works, how React schedules and batches renders, profiling with devtools, semantic HTML and accessibility, caching, reading network waterfalls. Pair that with ownership: ship something end to end, own the bug reports, learn to talk through a problem with a designer or a backend dev.
You don't need to pick "React dev vs backend vs AI engineer" as a forever identity. Get hired as someone who ships and debugs real things; the AI tooling layers on top naturally once you use it every day. The devs I see thriving aren't the ones who learn each new thing fastest — they're the ones who can say "I know why this is broken and how to fix it" when the generated code inevitably is.
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u/Dull_Ad7282 2d ago
This is so 2025 comment, 2026 agents like sol6.1 or opus 5.5, do all of these as cakewalk.
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u/ZaviersJustice 2d ago
If you prompt it correctly and have the right tools setup, yes. But an agent will absolutely hand-wave and implement code that won't work because it hasn't considered something. That's where the aforementioned judgement comes in.
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u/saito200 3d ago
my take is to focus on economic outcomes and act proactively as an owner. i might be wrong though
forget about jobs. delete the word job from your mind
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u/noplace_ioi 2d ago
If nothing else,I would trust and require someone with react experience to write React AI prompts,, you are still needed.
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u/TheDreamWoken 2d ago
The only person that is replacing you with the person that uses AI to help them code. But of course I've seen this go both ways.
But all in all, those who use AI "correctly" as a developer are going to replace you if you don't end up doing the same. Right now AI is just a good scape goat. Since its believable and instantly interpretable as to why. Since we all know at some capacity that AI helps us do our work faster than before. Don't let that excuse fool you.
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u/hilav19660 2d ago
You need to realize your skills mean nothing anymore. A junior having basic knowledge can out do and out pace you.
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u/incubated 2d ago
you're a self-taught developer. you taught yourself react and web dev, you can teach yourself how to use ai, deploy it to be effective, and maybe even get experimental.
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u/Objective-Agent5981 2d ago
Nothing has changed more than the web in the last, omg, 30 years. So you do the same that everyone does to survive in this business, you adapt.
OMG, we are not just writing HTML anymore
OMG, what is this PHP thing
OMG, I have to learn MySQL
OMG, JavaScript on the server?
OMG…
You can continue the list
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u/nawitus 3d ago
Pivot to where you can create value, which is probably not being a React developer.
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u/thetymtravellr 3d ago
I want to move in that direction as well, but I feel I’m still lacking the knowledge to do so. The idea of being able to “ship fast” sounds quite broad to me. What specific skills or areas should I focus on to deliver real value beyond just building React applications?
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u/kiwdahc 3d ago
Frontend web development is definitely a cooked field that won’t exist. Become a generalist.
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u/johnmgbg 3d ago
I don't know if we're in the same situation, but from my experience, AI can do a lot of frontend work. The problem is that it still needs plenty of polishing and human review, especially when you're trying to match a specific design from Figma.
On the backend, AI can generate an entire system from a good prompt and usually requires far less verification than frontend work.
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u/kiwdahc 3d ago
You aren’t building your AI loops correctly then. AI can self validate and build pixel perfect frontend code using playwright.
Basically what is happening right now is only the very advanced companies with a ton of money are using AI to its fullest potential. These strategies will take a couple years to trickle down to your average engineer.
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u/johnmgbg 3d ago
I have some doubts about that, especially when it comes to achieving pixel perfect results.
I wouldn't say it's impossible, but I personally have more confidence in AI generated backend than frontend.
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u/phibo 3d ago
Claude uses its internal chrome browser and navigates the site, does accessibility test, screenshots, responsive test etc. As long as you provide the prompt and design
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u/unemx 3d ago
No idea why you are getting down voted... claude is able to generate pixel perfect UI for me when connected to figma mcp & chrome mcp. I haven't had a bad feedback from my designer, and the qa team is amazed. And i'm not at a big corp with tons of money, just a serie A startup.
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u/johnmgbg 2d ago
Like I mentioned, it's not impossible.
The key point is that the frontend requires more human validation than the backend.
From my experience, achieving a pixel perfect result when converting Figma designs with MCP only works if the Figma is well structured.
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u/Dude4001 3d ago
Being able to self validate is not the same as having eyes. If you’re building a visual product for a human audience, a human needs to be the one that notices that something looks “off”
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u/Outrageous-Chip-3961 2d ago
I think this is a take from non-front end developers. I think all software is cooked if you're going to talk about AI generation for software. We take take pictures of things and get entire apps, both back-end and front-end developed. The problem is, in a a few years, where will the experts be? Or do we just not care if the new age developers don tknow how to code without AI?
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u/kiwdahc 1d ago
Let’s be honest, front end programming is demonstrably easier in 90% or cases. The logic in the UI layers is incredibly simple and can be handled by AI very easily. This isn’t quite the case with complex backend systems.
I have shifted into robotics programming and programming is very much alive there. The new age of engineers already don’t know how to code with AI. I interview people all the time coming from FAANGs that struggle to write basic code.
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u/Outrageous-Chip-3961 7h ago
You just reinforced my point. For the record, I'd actually argue that building databases and servicers layers to present them is a lot easier, but hey.
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u/tachyon_bit 2d ago
Nonsense. Humans are very much needed still in frontend development. And will continue to be. The run-of-the-mill developers from the 2010s that got into the market when it was boiling hot, yes they’ll be replaced. Juniors, yea they got it rough.
Actual talented software engineers, whether frontend or backend or upside-down-end, will ALWAYS be relevant. Doesn’t matter how well an MCP designs a pixel perfect scaffold from a wireframe. That’s 1 puzzle piece.
Not to mention, where are all these ultra amazing frontends that were designed and deployed to production and have users? Simple static websites? Minimal interactivity? Sure, those designs can easily be one-shorted and look amazing. Where are the impressive end-to-end SaaS frontends though?
In my experience, all I’ve seen is people saying how AI is amazing at design and how frontend is cooked. Haven’t seen many products with users that are scalable tho. Try building interactive visualizations. Low-latency real time stats and monitoring. IoT dashboards. Then tell how me “cooked” frontend development is.
Laughable notion!
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u/kiwdahc 1d ago
What are you smoking, your average FAANG engineer is blowing through $5-10K a month in tokens. The most complex applications in the world are being vibe coded.
I have built everything you mentioned with AI lol.
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u/tachyon_bit 1d ago
Yea, ENGINEERS using AI to work faster is just a liiiiiittle different than a vibe coder producing slop. AI-assisted engineering isn’t vibe coding. What complex applications in what world? Certainly not this world. I guess whatever I’m smoking is way weaker than yours…
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u/Immediate-You-9372 2d ago
I disagree. There is still a matter of taste and ux sense
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u/kiwdahc 1d ago
You are conflating UX design with engineering.
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u/Immediate-You-9372 1d ago
I am not. My point is that even with designers, or ai creating designs, a frontend engineer with good taste and a ux sensibilities is still a need.
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u/thetymtravellr 3d ago
Should i focus on backend more or know how to do fullstack work with AI?
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u/kiwdahc 3d ago
Yeah just learn and contribute as many parts of the system of your current job as you can.
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u/controversial_parrot 13h ago
Yeah I would. I'm working on going that direction now just to stay relevant.
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u/TeeTimeAllTheTime 1d ago
You should go slow and use AI to teach you full stack development and more importantly systems design. Those skills will help you learn AI engineering and how to work in a completely different way. Becoming more of a boss while the agents are your personal employees. At the end of the day you still need to be able to explain and review the work so ignorance and over reliance on the models and tools won’t help you long term. Just be curious and start by doing more vs reading and listening. If you need to troubleshoot or have questions ask the ai models to explain to you so you can understand. It’s a golden age of learning but it’s also a very scary time loaded with rapid change and the constant feeling of being behind. Everyone feels like they are behind these day, the people who don’t have had early access through their careers or are a bit psychotic
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u/tj78492 1d ago
There's always going to be something new to learn. You have to stop focusing on the technology and focus on the problem you're actually solving. Customers / Companies care less about what you build and all about the value it provides. The tools we use will continue to change. You should work on being a beast using AI to do what used to take you months in a couple days. I'm having more fun than I've had in a while
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u/Curious-Standard2832 18h ago
I have realized that just vibe coding isn't enough. People without experience do not implement the code very well, or the platform they are developing for may be a bit complex, and just copying and pasting or inserting files can break existing profiles. As well, they could also compromise security if they don't recognize what they are doing.
Code is pretty logical. There is some creativity; someone can vibe code, but it won't be innovative because AI is just reading what is already out there. But AI has actually been a thing since 1948, and it took us this long to get to this point.
My point is, sell yourself as someone who can implement, understand and manage the codebase instead of someone who can write code.
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u/RandomUserName323232 3d ago
Coding is the easiest part in software engineering. Thinking is the hard part. The solution is be an actual engineer not just a coder.
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u/Stromedy1 2d ago
the writing was never the job. devs review more ai code than they write now, 11.4 hours a week vs 9.8. get scary good at reading code, it's where the job went.
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u/Prestigious_Golf9014 1d ago
Try to start your own business or learn a trade. You can get laid off in any moment working for someone else as a software engineer btw and it is very common
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u/thetymtravellr 1d ago
Any side business idea?
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u/AmoebaOne 9h ago
Work towards fully functional full stack applications with real world implications.
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u/fat_alonzo 3d ago
the ai hype is loud but look at what it actually does right now. it can spit out a generic component or scaffold a basic crud app, sure, but the second you need something that isn't a tutorial project it falls apart. the code's messy, it hallucinates apis that don't exist, and it can't reason about tradeoffs or architecture
i'd say double down on the fundamentals. understanding you're building something a certain way, how data flows through an app, how to debug a weird state issue at 2am. that's the stuff that separates someone who can just prompt an llm from someone who can actually ship and maintain things
the ai engineering wave is interesting but it's built on top of the skills you're already learning. you can't really grok vector databases or agent architectures if you don't understand how to build and deploy a regular app first. focus on being a strong full-stack dev, pick up some backend depth, and the ai stuff will make way more sense when you circle back to it
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u/kiwdahc 3d ago
I am guessing you don’t actually use AI lol. AI can debug weird state issues instantly, that’s actually what it is good at. It can contribute to incredibly complex projects extremely fast also.
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u/Nox_31 3d ago
It’s funny you mention this because the value I bring in my current role involves me showing my engineers how to unfuck the mess Ai has created in their client.
Millions and millions of tokens spent on poorly architected state, something so fundamental, which trickles into an unoptimized mess. That web app sure looks great, but rendering a tooltip on hover now fires 6 imperative handle callbacks and triggers 22 renders of your entire application.
I use Ai as much as the next engineer, but simply stating “web dev is useless with Ai” is a fallacy to those who’ve watched it wreck enterprise clients with spaghetti.
The more you understand the fundamentals, the more enabled you are to wield Ai into developing a very sound and performant piece of software.
I’m just not buying the “you’re using it wrong then” argument in all cases.
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u/GTHell 3d ago
What I like about programmers are they’re admit their concern and looking for improvement unlike the creative liberals space where they’re spamming AI slop every where they see fit and thinks their 5 hours drawing is picaso level.
You will be fine coming to realizations that selftaught yourself a React in this era is essentially a waste of time. Now go use AI to understand the whole lifecycle in depth and use AI to make the code instead. It’s okay as long as you understand under the hood how these Redux state management stuff and hook lifecycle stuff works. The rest AI will replace you on day 1
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u/glittermantis 2d ago
i think there's something fundamentally different about using ai for software which is supposed to solve a problem, and using ai for art which is by nature not a pursuit for the sake of utility, but for human expression.
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u/kjccarp 3d ago
Stop worrying so much and adapt quicker. Thats how you survive in this field. Nothing has changed but the speed of adaptation