The AI Manager - The End of Programming

Managing AIs instead of managing people


Where does software development go?

The end of programming will be no programming at all. AIs will do the things that are necessary without someone telling them. If there are still companies, this means sending emails to customers (who have AIs that are reading their emails and acting on them ;-) to sell more things, create APIs or websites on their own, hire other people (AIs) to do things - all without a β€œprogrammer” or any human telling them what to do. At home the AI is managing temperature and food, with no code or a developer creating it. Without you telling the AI what to do.

But this future is decades away. What about the near future?

For the near future, developers will become managers. Today developers are listening to product managers and translate requirements to code. In the near future, they will manage AIs just as managers today manage people.

Instead of hiring and managing people, they will select and manage different AIs. Developers get things to do and give them to a suitable AI for a solution. Different AIs for different tasks. Different tasks to one AI.

And then they need to manage those AIs. Select the right AIs and find new ones (just like a manager hires people). See what the AIs are doing, check the results, give them feedback (just like a manager would today), give them more data, connect them to data sources, grow them (again just like a people manager today).

Like people managers today, programmers will become AI managers.

Join CTO Newsletter

Join more than 2600 CTOs and Engineering Managers

More Stuff from Stephan

Other interesting articles for CTOs

β€’ Best books for CTO β€’ The CTO Book β€’ Experienced CTO Coach β€’ Engineering Manager Coaching β€’ CTO Mentor β€’ CTO Mentoring β€’ CTO Newsletter β€’ How many developers do you need? β€’ Postgres for Everything Technology and Roadmaps β€’ How to become a CTO in a company - a career path

Other Articles

Tests Are Bad For Developers

Startup CEOs learned Engineering Management from Captain Kirk

Just Use Postgres for Everything

Selfhealing Code for Startup CTOs and Solo Founders

⌚ Why Everything Takes Longer and Longer in Growing Startups