AI vs. Developers: Is Your Job at Risk?

AI vs. Developers: Is Your Job at Risk?

Lately, I’ve been having a lot of conversations with fellow developers about AI and its impact on our jobs. It’s a hot topic, especially for those just starting out in coding. There’s a lot of uncertainty, and I get why—AI is getting smarter, writing code, debugging, and even suggesting optimizations. So, does that mean developers are on their way out?

If you ask me in one line whether AI will replace developers, my answer is a big NO—but there’s a catch. AI isn’t coming for the jobs of those who know how to use it wisely. The real risk isn’t AI itself; it’s developers who don’t evolve, don’t improve, and don’t use AI as a tool to work smarter.

Let’s break this down and talk about what’s really happening. 🚀

Have you noticed that big tech companies are still hiring developers? Even though they're building AI, they continue to hire real engineers for their own teams. Why? Because they know that human expertise is irreplaceable.

AI can assist developers, but it can't replace them—a real engineer understands client requirements, context, and creativity in a way AI simply can't. Unlike humans, AI needs precise, well-structured prompts to generate useful responses.

AI is essentially a machine that has been trained on a vast amount of data. When it comes to coding, AI doesn’t truly "understand" code the way humans do—it simply analyzes patterns from the code it has seen and predicts the next piece based on that knowledge. And where does that knowledge come from? Developers.

AI, on its own, is nothing without the data and examples provided by real programmers. Let’s take React.js 19 as an example...

In React 19, we can now pass values directly to Context without needing a separate <Provider>. Here’s an example:

import React, { createContext, useState } from 'react';
// Create the context
const ThemeContext = createContext(null);

const ThemeProvider = ({ children }) => {
  const [theme, setTheme] = useState('light');
  const toggleTheme = () => {
    setTheme((prev) => (prev === 'light' ? 'dark' : 'light'));
  }
  return <ThemeContext value={{ theme, toggleTheme }}>{children}</ThemeContext}>
};
export { ThemeContext, ThemeProvider };

However, if you ask AI to debug this, it might rewrite it using the older Context Provider syntax, like this:

const ThemeProvider = ({ children }) => {
  const [theme, setTheme] = useState('light');

  const toggleTheme = () => {
    setTheme((prev) => (prev === 'light' ? 'dark' : 'light'));
  };

  return (
    <ThemeContext.Provider value={{ theme, toggleTheme }}>
      {children}
    </ThemeContext.Provider>
  );
};

With Next.js 15, URL parameters are now asynchronous, meaning we need to handle them correctly using the use hook. However, if you ask AI to generate code, it might default to the older approach, which can cause errors.

AI-Generated (Old & Buggy) Code

  
const Page = ({ params }) => {
  return <div>Page ID: {params.id}</div>;
};

export default Page;
  

✅ Server-Side Approach (Async Params in RSCs)

  
    export default async function Page({
      params,
    }: {
      params: Promise<{ slug: string }>;
    }) {
      const slug = (await params).slug;
      return <div>My Post: {slug}</div>;
    }
  

✅ Client-Side Approach (Using use() Hook)

  
    import { use } from 'react';

    export default function Page({
      params,
    }: {
      params: Promise<{ slug: string }>;
    }) {
      const { slug } = use(params);
      return <div>My Post: {slug}</div>;
    }
  

What this shows us is that AI is just an assistant—it’s trained on the code that we write. We are the developers, the ones with the ability to learn, adapt, and innovate. AI can help, but it’s our knowledge and problem-solving skills that truly drive development forward. 🚀. 

Moral of the story use Ai for your benefit in the way that it is your assistant not you are its assistant. Use AI to increase productivity. Do more Achieve more in less time. Ai will replace only coders that are non productive and also the people who will afraid. Increase your learnings.