Software engineering, once a top-paying profession in the US with 1.5 million practitioners earning twice the national median salary in 2022, is being reshaped by artificial intelligence. Since the release of OpenAI's ChatGPT in 2022, more than 600,000 US tech workers have lost their jobs, according to Layoff.fyi. The unemployment rate for computer science graduates rose to 7% in 2024, up from 6.1% the previous year, and underemployment exceeded 19%, according to the New York Fed. Indeed tech job postings dropped 36% from 2020 to 2025.
Engineers Adapt to AI-Driven Changes
Matt, a software engineer who commutes four hours daily to Pawling, New York, uses the time to code a browser-based video game by hand. He said his job has shifted from coding to reviewing AI-generated code, and he fears his skills will weaken. “I am actively trying to keep my axe sharp,” he said. After a layoff last summer and a warning from his boss to use AI more, he described his future as dark.
George Dover, a six-year software engineer in Portland, Oregon, became a substitute kindergarten teacher after a layoff at Intuit Mailchimp in late 2024. He used AI to generate code, then evaluated it for errors and bugs. “The quality has to be rigorously tested,” he said. After 400 applications, he landed an AI-oriented software engineering job.
Experts Weigh In on the Profession's Future
Bouke Klein Teeselink, assistant professor of economics at King's College London, said, “The skill of writing code is over. AI is hugely augmenting what it means to be a software engineer.” Ethan Mollick, associate professor at Wharton, noted that value now lies in defining problems and directing AI tools. David Malan, Harvard computer science professor, predicted a “healthier balance of software engineers being supported by AI” due to costs—OpenAI spent $8bn last year, according to Reuters.
Shriram Krishnamurthi, professor at Brown University, said the growing need for code reviews will weed out some engineers: “Those who did will thrive; those who didn’t are going to have to re-tool.”
From Coding Boom to Bust
The “learn to code” push began with President Obama’s $4bn Computer Science for All initiative in 2013. Coding bootcamps produced over 2,000 graduates in 2013, rising 1000% by 2020, per Course Report. Sam, a Los Angeles engineer who switched careers a decade ago, now fears layoffs and competition from displaced talent at Google, Amazon, and Netflix. “I’m thinking, ‘What if I opened a food truck?’” he said. Enrollment in computer science programs fell 8.1% in 2025-2026, per the National Student Clearinghouse.
Tech Workers Organize
Kaitlin Cort quit her software engineering role to start What We Will, a resource center for tech workers affected by AI. The center helps with layoffs, negotiations, and unionization. Cort said she receives at least 10 new applications daily, with many seeking unionization. “As an industry, we don’t have a guild—we don’t have regulations or standards,” she said.
