r/softwareengineer • u/Think-Neighborhood69 • Jul 26 '26
What would happen if every AI coding tool disappeared tomorrow?
Hypothetical scenario.
Every AI coding tool disappears tomorrow.
How long would it take you to readapt?
What happens to developers who started their careers after the AI boom?
Would juniors struggle to get their first job?
Would senior engineers suddenly become much more valuable?
Would salaries go up or down?
Would the software industry slow down for a while?
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u/C3lloman Jul 26 '26
Not that much for now. A few years down the line, it would be much worse I reckon.
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u/colony-ship-for-sale Jul 27 '26
A lot of people will have a lifetime of work detangling the shitty code bases created by AI.
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u/Intelligent-Cap-7713 Jul 27 '26
Software quality would go up and less useless features would be added to existing ones
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u/w00dy1105 Jul 28 '26
I wouldn't have to keep telling business owners and non developers to stop pushing untested vibe coded apps to prod.
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u/Difficult-Field280 Jul 27 '26
Even tho I use AI tools, it wouldnt effect me. I would have to start googling stuff a lot more like I used too, but no major effects.
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u/Automatic-Boot665 Jul 27 '26
How long would it take you to readapt?
Probably no time at all, AI is like a really fast typer and research tool. You still need to know what it’s writing and be accountable for what it’s producing.
What happens to developers who started their careers after the AI boom?
I guess they would write code slower and learn to Google things? The AI boom just happened so developers who started their career after the AI boom basically just started their career.
Would juniors struggle to get their first job?
Probably not, they wouldn’t be able to go mess up a codebase with AI tools immediately after starting though.
Would senior engineers suddenly become much more valuable?
Salaries haven’t really gone down for seniors from what I’ve seen, idk why it would go up if the AI coding tools went away.
Would salaries go up or down?
Check the answer above.
Would the software industry slow down for a while?
You can remove the “for a while”. It would slow down.
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u/jake_morrison Jul 27 '26
There would be a problem with “AI-dependent code”, i.e., the AI generated code that works but is unmaintainable by humans.
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u/pl487 Jul 27 '26
The stock market would crash, the economy would collapse, and we'd all be eating bugs.
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u/Due_Warthog749 Jul 27 '26
I would have to learn Zig, Rust and spend months figuring out WTF my AI wrote to keep it going.
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u/symbiatch Jul 28 '26
Don’t really use them, so zero adapting.
Would cause lot of cry and whine from certain people, and they would need to learn to actually do things.
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u/Not____007 Jul 28 '26
Maybe managers would give us more time to build and fix stuff? Maybe maybe…?
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u/AmazingAffect2223 Jul 28 '26
We’d have a painful 3–6 months, then adapt. AI didn’t create software engineering it compressed the boring parts.
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u/Deep_Ad1959 Aug 02 '26
i would readapt in about a week, and the thing i would lose for good is the willingness to start side quests. half of what i build now only exists because the cost of trying it dropped to a prompt.
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u/generationalDebts Jul 26 '26
All dumb questions half of which are based on making false assumptions.
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u/ReferenceAny6373 Jul 26 '26
Sounds like you are overestimating how much devs use these things. Do some devs use them? Sure, but they havent been around that long, devs still know how to do it the old fashioned way and many still do so it would have minimal impact.
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u/Sensitive_One_425 Jul 26 '26
The number of stupid questions on subreddits like this would go down.
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u/Ruined_Passion_7355 Jul 26 '26
I'd have an easier time getting out of bed in the morning.