HACKER Q&A
📣 diginova

Is it just the jobs at risk or the companies too?


Technology is bringing automation to a lot of software development. There are hundreds, if not thousands of companies which are just technically freelancing small apps and websites (software) to other companies. These might get affected equally as the jobs are affected

Ref: https://ncube.com/blog/software-development-companies-industries-they-tend-to-work-with

Inspiration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uN1Q98UMO4

  👤 lucozade Accepted Answer ✓
Predicting the future is filled with people looking like arses due to their predictions. But there's a few things that have been generally true when there's been reasonably disruptive technologies.

First, a bunch of job types will disappear or diminish substantially. If a company relies on making money from those job types, and doesn't pivot sufficiently quickly, then they'll likely go under.

But it doesn't follow that that will imply fewer jobs or fewer companies in general. It doesn't even imply fewer in the disrupted industry. It does, usually, mean that there'll be different demands for different skills and that will, likely, make space for different opportunities.

Of course, this time it could be different from all the others. But I can't say I see any evidence of that. I could end up looking like an arse of course.

👤 tikkun
One weird theory:

AI might actually significantly increase the demand for software engineers in the short term.

If software engineers are more productive, then they’re higher ROI for businesses to hire.

Plus, the world still has a massive supply shortage of software.

I’ve hired contract software engineers for my businesses at a higher pace since GPT-4’s release than before. And I like working with contractors that utilize GPT to help them do Dev.