Will AI replace developers?

Let’s talk about AI

In recent years, everyone has been talking about artificial intelligence and its impact on the job market, especially in software development. Back in the day, there were plenty of posts and statements claiming that AI would write code on its own and make developers obsolete. Later, the opposite camp appeared, full of people skeptical about AI’s actual capabilities.

I’ve been using AI chats since the early days of the hype. I find them useful in certain cases, but I can’t agree with the fear that AI will take my job. A big part of the hype, I suspect, is fueled by the people building and selling AI tools. Of course, there are always enthusiasts who are overly excited about its potential. But this isn’t the first time we’ve heard such promises. In the past, we’ve seen technologies that were supposed to “end programming as we know it” — like visual programming tools or no-code platforms. Each of these innovations found its niche, but none replaced developers. Nobody today can realistically claim that their grandma can build an enterprise-level application without technical knowledge. Well, I’ve heard people promise it will happen “soon”, but time has already proven them wrong.

My experience

I still remember the first time I was amazed by a chatbot. It was about two decades ago, when we were still sharing software on floppy disks. I got my hands on a chatbot app that seemed amazing in casual conversations. But soon I noticed its weaknesses and limitations. The magic didn’t last long as it started to repeat itself. That’s why I understand people who tried ChatGPT for the first time and believed in its power.

It may sound like I don’t like AI, but that’s not true. I use AI tools almost every day and find them handy. For example, I can’t draw at all, but with AI I can easily create a personalized birthday card — that’s a game changer. Like many people, I’m happy to delegate some work to AI, such as drafting an algorithm that I can later test and refine. My main point is reflected in the title of this post: AI is a helper, not a replacement.

Solution advice

Once, while looking for a solution to a problem, I decided to analyze it using an AI chat. I was impressed when it proposed a clean and elegant approach. Unfortunately, the solution didn’t work. Later, I found the actual source of knowledge that I believe the AI had relied on — a GitHub issue where someone proposed a software change. The suggestion would have solved my problem with just a few lines in the configuration file. But that issue was never resolved, maybe because it was too complex to implement.

The conclusion? You can never fully trust AI’s answers to be accurate.

Vibe coding

A friend of mine, impressed by an AI-powered IDE, suggested I give Cursor IDE a try. Coincidentally, I had a small pet project I wanted to complete and publish but hadn’t found time for. It sounded like a good opportunity.

I already had a working app for personal use. I installed Cursor IDE, enabled agent mode, and asked it to convert my .NET project into TypeScript and Electron. The project was tiny, but it still consumed an absurd number of tokens and produced a messy output that took me another hour to fix just to get it running. The logic was fine — it was too simple to break — but the AI decided to “enhance” it with extra features I never asked for.

The generated web app was buggy and would have taken me another evening to polish. But that wasn’t even the main issue. The real trouble came with non-code files. Every new prompt made the configuration messier. After a few hours, I gave up, deleted the project folder, and abandoned the experiment of letting an AI agent handle the entire job.

Things move fast in software. When I start a new project, I always check the latest framework documentation to make sure I’m using the newest commands and templates. I don’t want my project to look outdated right from the start. But that’s exactly what happens with AI agents — they often use stale knowledge. And this isn’t limited to the JavaScript world. Every modern language ecosystem evolves quickly.

Conclusion

AI, in its current state, is still an impressive tool. It can save time, help with tasks without installing extra software, or even create a birthday card on your behalf. But it is not a replacement for a human developer — not even close.

AI should be used with caution. Relying on it blindly can create more problems than it solves. Software development is still about writing code for people. For now, AI is a sidekick, not a threat. You shouldn’t hand it the keys to your codebase. Used carefully, it adds real value. Used carelessly, it can create a bigger mess than it fixes.

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P.S. No humans were harmed in the making of this blog post. Just mildly annoyed when AI suggested three extra commas.