Dario Amodei, the CEO of $61 billion AI startup Anthropic, mentioned final month that AI will take over coding for software program engineers inside a yr. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg mentioned in January that Meta was creating AI that might code as well as a mid-level engineer this yr. Final month, Sam Altman mentioned that finally, fewer software engineers can be wanted. In the meantime, a recent Pew Research survey discovered that half of AI consultants predicted the know-how would result in fewer software program growth jobs over the subsequent 20 years.
However regardless of so many CEOs and consultants predicting that AI will substitute, or no less than change, the scope of a software program engineer’s job, the CEO of id and entry administration firm Okta says the notion is “laughable.”
“I simply chuckle each time I hear about it,” Okta CEO Todd McKinnon advised Business Insider on Tuesday. “This complete ‘we’re gonna have fewer software program engineers.’ It is laughable.”
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McKinnon said that he expects extra demand and the next variety of software program engineers and builders within the trade within the subsequent few years than there are actually.
“In 5 years, there shall be extra software program engineers,” McKinnon advised BI.
McKinnon disputed the concept that demand for software program engineers will wane as AI’s coding capabilities develop. He mentioned that extra software program engineers had been wanted in each period of development within the know-how trade, from the rise of PCs to the expansion of cell phones. And whereas AI can deal with the “grunt work,” engineers will stage as much as designing techniques and dealing with extra advanced issues.
Okta CEO Todd McKinnon. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg through Getty Photographs
Even when McKinnon is optimistic concerning the outlook for software program engineers, hiring for the occupation has decreased for the reason that pandemic. Data from ADP exhibits that, by January 2024, the U.S. employed fewer software program engineers than it did six years prior. Indeed data revealed that software program engineer positions had been down by greater than one-third in March in comparison with 5 years in the past.
Nonetheless, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) predicts that from 2023 to 2033, software program developer jobs will develop by 17%, “a lot sooner than common,” and add 327,900 new jobs. The 2023 median pay for the occupation was $130,160 per yr, per BLS.
Okta, with a market worth of over $15 billion, supplies software program for corporations to make use of in multi-factor authentication and different person entry strategies. As of April 2024, the corporate employs shut to six,000 international workers and has greater than 18,000 purchasers.
