Whenever a new technology emerges, the immediate concern is job losses. Historically, while technology has washed away many jobs, it has also created various new job opportunities. In the age of generative AI, the discussions are no different, albeit, the impact could be different this time.

Many industry experts that AIM has spoken to are of the opinion that generative AI will be a productivity booster and will make an organisation’s workforce more efficient. However, in a recent interview with The Atlantic, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, said, “A lot of people working on AI pretend that it’s only going to be good; it’s only going to be a supplement; and no one is ever going to be replaced,” he continued, “Jobs are definitely going to go away, full stop.”

Interestingly, Altman is not the only CEO of a prominent generative AI company claiming AI will lead to job losses. Not so long ago, Emad Mostaque, the CEO of Stability AI, on a call with UBS analysts, claimed that most of India’s outsourced coders will lose their jobs because of AI.

Entry-level coding jobs could go away

ChatGPT (powered by OpenAI’s GPT models) can code and how! In fact, the chatbot cleared a Level-3 coding interview at Google. Large language models (LLMs) are trained on huge amounts of human-written code and are able to generate a lot of code that previously required human intervention. Given LLM’s ability to generate them in a significantly faster way, entry-level coding jobs could be displaced.

Natarajan Radhakrishnan, president and CIO, Hinduja Global Solutions, believes that AI will not take away coding jobs entirely, however, “The lower end of coding may indeed face replacement, not just in India, but globally”, he told AIM.

With the rise of generative AI, lower-level coding tasks have diminished in value, as LLMs can easily generate cookie-cutter code, rendering such tasks unnecessary, according to Anurag Sahay, managing director – AI and Data Science, at Nagarro. “Coders and engineers will have to bring two important value propositions to the table – an ability for complex system engineering and an ability to leverage LLMs quickly to create digital assets,” he told AIM.

Moreover, in India, more than 15 lakh engineers graduate every year from over 2500 institutions. Despite the huge churn-out, reports over the years have suggested that a huge chunk of them are unfit for hiring. A McKinsey report pegged that number at a massive 94%. In the current AI landscape, this situation can be concerning. Companies may prioritise AI assistance to accomplish tasks. And while they may not lay off inexperienced coders, they might reconsider hiring them in the future.

Gibin Varghese, partner-technology practice, at WalkWater Talent Advisors, concurs. According to him, generative AI will definitely reduce the demand for entry-level coding jobs. “In the future, the demand for coders with knowledge or experience of working with generative AI tools will increase. Developers who haven’t adapted to generative AI tools will be at risk of losing their jobs. Freshers will need to upskill in generative AI to remain relevant,” he told AIM.

Entry-level coding quality will be transformed

However, not all is gloomy for entry-level coding job seekers, be it in India, or any part of the world. As Varghese mentioned, only developers who fail to adapt to newer technologies are at risk. “Hence entry-level developers can upskill in emerging areas to stay relevant and thrive in the evolving job market,” Sekhar Garisa, CEO, Foundit (previously Monster APAC & ME), told AIM.

In fact, the very nature of entry-level coding jobs is going to change in the days to come. “A lot of HTML, Web, and Mobile developers developing template code will have to develop meta and thinking skills along with more software engineering skills to remain relevant. So, we expect better-quality entry-level coders. Cookie-cutter entry-level coding skills will not stay relevant,” Sahay said.

Currently, numerous online resources and generative AI courses empower individuals to upskill and enhance their knowledge. Educational institutions will likely introduce similar courses to develop the skills of countless students enrolling each year. “We expect educational institutes to pick up these tools and teach students skills to use these AI tools and add significant value to the AI creatives. This is the only future that looks promising,” Sahay added.

World will write way more software than ever before

While entry-level coding jobs might face challenges, the demand for skilled coders will remain because of the necessity for building functional, high-quality software. “The world is becoming more digital and there is a need for more software than ever before. It is our belief that the world will be writing way more software than ever and the demand for quality software engineers who know how to use these AI tools to build complex software outcomes will only get higher,” Sahay said.

With generative AI coming into the picture, the overall expectation around the productivity of a coder is also changing drastically. Today, a website can be built within an hour, compared to a month’s time earlier. The same is true of test cases that needed to be written or documentation around code. These creatives have been made vastly simpler with LLMs.

However, in the long run, as these LLMs further mature, there could be a scenario where these models can perform complex coding tasks and maybe this is the scenario Altman envisages. The developments happening in this space are fast and it’s difficult to predict. Nonetheless, even if it does, technology does create jobs, and hence, so will generative AI.