Software Developers, Applications

4%
Vote
Comments (33)

Will "Software Developers, Applications" be replaced by AI & Robots?

There is very little chance of this occupation being replaced by robots/AI. However, our poll suggests a higher chance of automation: a 31% chance of automation within the next 2 decades.

Automation Risk Level

Totally Safe

or 4% probability of automation

Projected Growth

19%

by 2024

People Employed

903,160

as of 2018

Median Annual Wage

$103,620

or $49.81 hourly

Compare
Most likely
Least likely

How this compares with other jobs: 131 out of 707

Cast Your Vote

How likely do you think this occupation will be taken over by robots/AI within the next 20 years?

People Employed (US)

Median Annual Wage (US)

Job description

Develop, create, and modify general computer applications software or specialized utility programs. Analyze user needs and develop software solutions. Design software or customize software for client use with the aim of optimizing operational efficiency. May analyze and design databases within an application area, working individually or coordinating database development as part of a team. May supervise computer programmers.

SOC Code: 15-1132

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Comments

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Fionn Fuchs (Could go either way) says
Certain parts of software development can be automated in theory even with todays technology. I think it could go either way and it depends vastly on the scientific progress for the topic.
Oct 06, 2020 at 12:59 PM
shubham (Likely) says
because MIT had developed automated programming tools
Oct 06, 2020 at 02:36 AM
Leandro (Could go either way) says
AI started to play chess... And overcame humans...
AI started to play Go... And overcame humans...
Now we see the first steps of Augmented Coding...
In the next 2 decades we may have surprises...
Sep 17, 2020 at 12:03 AM
Paul (No chance) says
Bots could make games and programs, but they will most likely not be easy to use, but they wouldn't be very buggy. These programs would also be very similar.
Sep 09, 2020 at 05:54 PM
Commenter (Highly likely) says
If computer programmers have a high risk to me replaced by machines, so the software developers by the same reason.
Aug 31, 2020 at 06:29 PM
saddaw (Small chance) says
The simple parts of it could become automated
Aug 29, 2020 at 12:36 PM
Karolina (Highly likely) says
Because that's where programming is aiming, full automatization
Aug 28, 2020 at 02:30 PM
heisenberg (Highly likely) says
GPT-2 of openAi will be able to write its own program. Basically everything will be automated. Algorithms will be made by AI's themselves
Aug 04, 2020 at 06:07 AM
Joe (Highly likely) says
Software development is a repetitive career. A machine can learn repetitive tasks and work at a much faster rate than humans can. With that being said, I believe the people who use the code will lose their jobs, but not the people who actually create the code.
Jun 26, 2020 at 08:35 AM
truthseeker says
The new NO CODE movement has just begun (google it).
They will SHOPIFY the art and coding will become mainstream which will be like a jigsaw puzzle fits all approach (Software as a Service, think Wordpress for programming then simplifying it ever further to Shopify ) while really custom work going to the programmers still left.
[This is the evolution of mass internet adoption])
Remember how Wordpress killed a good portion of the custom website market. Can't charge outrageous fees for a 3 page website when now any kid can press a couple buttons and own a wordpress. Same coming to code with this No Code movement, all the spamming and getting you to _learn to code_ was all bs
How it goes from the very few to adoption. An example would be Web Dev. First we had Web Devs charging 5 figures for simple 2 page html websites, then as more people used the internet, people were able to simplify using PagePublisher, GeoCities, etc... then as the talent pool filled and the market evened out, we seen Wordpress come in and let anyone create a webpage without knowing too much code.
Then years later we simplify it down to how Grandma could create a webpage with Shopify and sell her goods. Adoption. So its just a MATTER OF TIME before adoption comes to code. It starts with NO CODE.

Jun 16, 2020 at 09:17 PM
ShittyShit (No chance) says
The AI would most likely be dependent on another software.
May 07, 2020 at 04:17 PM
Sim101 says
These people are at the forefront of technological innovation, and a lot are geniuses. Do you really think they're gonna make themselves redundant? They'd make things easier for themselves for sure, but the software engineers of today will move into the high tech jobs of tomorrow.
Apr 08, 2020 at 12:49 PM
Kevin (Small chance) says
When a manager assigns a task to a programmer the instructors are incredibly vague. I would imagine that it would be very challenging for AI to turn ambiguous business requirements into rigorous code.
Apr 03, 2020 at 02:32 AM
Brian (No chance) says
This right here is the main reason!
Sep 22, 2020 at 07:38 PM
Kaarl (No chance) says
Because a computer won't be able to program itself
Mar 08, 2020 at 10:17 AM
Dustin says
As a software developer I feel pretty confident that we will be the last profession to be automated away. At the point in which the machines can make programs, they can automate out all the other professions.

As to those saying it will never happen. Let's hope.
Feb 02, 2020 at 06:05 PM
Santy (No chance) says
understand human psychology () {
if (robot understand human psychology)
then possible
else
understand human psychology
}

outofmemory error ;)
Jan 05, 2020 at 08:39 PM
Anonymus (Small chance) says
Because computers cannot programme
Oct 15, 2019 at 01:20 PM
Frank Ruiz (Highly likely) says
wrong, seek out about Natural Language Processing, and a bot that can write code in python from String instructions ;)
Jun 15, 2020 at 12:09 AM
heisenberg says
Read about GPT-2 of OpenAI. Programs are written by AI themselves
Aug 04, 2020 at 06:09 AM
i love design and making stuff others actually see says
How is web development more likely to be taken over? Are these uncreative software developers coming in thinking they are so cool for just doing stuff that nobody cares about?
Oct 05, 2019 at 08:46 PM
Fred (Likely) says
They are developing AI that can write simple lines of code
Oct 02, 2019 at 02:41 PM
Steve Jobs (No chance) says
AI requires software developers to run, so the job cannot be replaced by AI
Sep 23, 2019 at 08:34 PM
Elon Musk (No chance) says
it wont be taken over
Sep 06, 2019 at 08:38 PM
Riddix (Likely) says
AI, dynamic programming and stuff
Aug 15, 2019 at 09:57 AM
Nope (No chance) says
Within 20 years? That's a definite nope
Oct 24, 2019 at 05:23 AM
Manuel (Small chance) says
Even the robots or AIs that can replace programmers will have to be programmed by people in the first place.
Aug 07, 2019 at 01:21 AM
Olaf says
Software Developers 4%
Computer Programmers 48%
It doesn't make sense.
Jul 27, 2019 at 09:06 PM
Danni (No chance) says
It does.
Developing is different from programming.
Not much difference maybe.. but you need to be more creative on one side.
Aug 28, 2019 at 02:51 PM
Luca Colombi says
Requirement analysis and broad view of the system and stakeholders is the difference
Jan 08, 2020 at 01:48 PM
Lagged (o-o) says
Yeah, like ?????
Jul 04, 2020 at 11:46 PM
Brian says
Software developers get a problem and come up with a solution to the problem and then code it, versus programmers who are told to code something specifically. This makes it easier for an AI to replace programmers, as you can give an AI instructions on what to code. But what developers do with business needs and analysis is hard to hand off to AI
Sep 22, 2020 at 07:41 PM
Vi (No chance) says
Application development requires human creativity in problem solving
Jul 19, 2019 at 06:35 AM
makis says
Food for thought...
So if you have an idea (you are the creative mind, and the problem solver) you could hire a robot to create the app/software for what you need?

I believe that it's possible! You?
Sep 11, 2019 at 02:38 PM
BoiWonder (No chance) says
The odds of a program being able to develop and program itself is highly unlikely as it would be capable of detecting errors in code which would only really be mendable to a human eye
Jul 09, 2019 at 08:48 AM
void (Could go either way) says
depends on the type of job (project) and level of specialization (customer needs).
many programmers already lost their jobs due to better tools, web development is one example. With tools like wordpress and other building kits, many websites do not require real programming skils anymore. Which jobs are to follow?
Jun 22, 2019 at 07:21 PM
Jason says
LoL that is mostly templates and a CMS not an AI. But yeah tech is supposed to make things easier for people. People's jobs in the future will be mostly sales, development of technology, research. Those who arent skilled enough to work will be leeches in a new Reverse Tax system. This much is guaranteed. There is no alternative. Those unskilled people will revolt and then the proposal of a reverse tax system will be introduced.
Sep 01, 2019 at 10:28 AM
JD Smith (Small chance) says
AI will be able to do a lot of programming tasks in the future, freeing up human minds to focus more on creative problem-solving and less on solving standard computer science problems which have established best practices to solve and just require time and thought.
Jun 13, 2019 at 05:59 PM
Sergey says
What if some people are not creative by nature or they are born technitians and they don't want to work as artists or creative problem solvers? What all those "technitians-by-heart" should do? To be left without jobs? Kill themselves? All people cannot be creative all at once or be artists. Different people have different talents.
Aug 05, 2019 at 06:40 AM
21126776 says
Unfortunately all those people will be unemployed because their talents have already been surpassed by far by robots. This effect is not something new, it is just natural selection in other words how life works. Additionally it would not be necessary for them to kill themselves because many abilities that are involved with creativity can be developed through training.
Nov 02, 2019 at 03:45 AM
SM (No chance) says
Dev work can't be replaced by robots. However, I think less and less people will write code in the future: it will be possible to describe by voice what a software should do and some translation algorithm will write it for you.
May 19, 2019 at 09:20 AM
Jason says
The way in which we instruct a computer to do its stuff will change for sure
Sep 01, 2019 at 10:29 AM
Foo (No chance) says
The task of software developers is to automate tasks that others do. If AI can do all of that, it means that every single job can be automated automatically and there is no longer any work left for humans. If AI can't do it, it means that there will be work left for programmers. This will be true, even if new tools are invented that automate some of the tasks programmers do.
Apr 30, 2019 at 07:49 PM
Julian (Small chance) says
Because we, software engineers, are the ones Who develop the robots program.
Apr 05, 2019 at 08:17 PM
Proper (Could go either way) says
20 years is a huge timespan.
Apr 05, 2019 at 09:27 AM
Fullwidth says
Dev work is completely based on personality and how you do it.
Mar 31, 2019 at 03:41 AM

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