AI Impact on Tech Jobs

There has been ongoing discussion for more than a year on whether artificial intelligence is resulting in fewer jobs for software engineers and coders. While some thought AI would make workers more efficient, it appears that AI is replacing workers, especially in big tech.

Salesforce is the latest company to say that its use of AI tools has allowed it to reduce hiring, specifically for engineers and customer service workers. This seems to be a trend among large tech firms, suggesting the impact AI could have on jobs for software developers, coders, and engineers. Robin Washington, Chief Financial and Operations Officer, said in an interview that the company is hiring fewer software engineers because of AI productivity gains. She stated that they view AI as assistants that will allow them to hire fewer people and increase the productivity of their existing team.

Millions of students worldwide, especially in India, are training to become software engineers. As their chances of getting a job at major tech companies look smaller due to AI, many are considering studying abroad for master’s degrees.

Initially, AI tools from companies like OpenAI, Google, and Salesforce were considered a way to improve productivity. However, it now seems that those in the tech industry may be among the most likely to be displaced by AI. Aneesh Raman, LinkedIn’s chief economic opportunity officer, wrote that office workers are facing the same technological and economic disruption, with the bottom rung of the career ladder being affected first.

Hiring hasn’t stopped completely, but it is becoming more difficult to get a first job in tech, especially after graduating from college. Tech company leaders have indicated that AI is taking over jobs. Salesforce has admitted that its hiring has decreased because of AI, and it is becoming clear that more tech companies are relying on AI instead of human labor for certain tasks.

At Microsoft, CEO Satya Nadella said that engineers are using AI to write 20% to 30% of code for company projects. He noted that the percentage of AI-generated code varies by programming language, with Python code being “fantastic” and C++ capabilities not as good. Nadella also said that Microsoft is using more advanced AI agents to review code.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that he is unsure how much code AI is writing, but the company plans to use AI for half of its software development within the next year, and that amount will increase from there. He stated that Meta is developing AI that can write code at the level of a mid-level engineer and plans to have a lot of its code built by AI engineers this year.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that the company was using AI to write over 30% of new code, up from 25% and that employees are accepting AI-suggested code. He believes that there is still more to do.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei acknowledged that AI is already writing code and predicted that AI could be writing almost all of the code in 12 months and 90% of new code in three to six months.

Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn said that the company will replace many of its human contract workers with AI.

AI chatbots like ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot were initially seen as tools for basic tasks, but they are being used to write full code. OpenAI recently released Codex, an AI coding engine within ChatGPT, and Google introduced GeminiCode Assist, a code-review agent that identifies bugs and offers suggestions within GitHub.

The impact of AI is being felt, especially on entry-level tech jobs. SignalFire reported that major tech companies, including Meta, Microsoft, and Google, recruited fewer recent graduates in 2024 compared to previous years. New graduates accounted for just 7% of new hires in 2024, a decrease from 2023 and pre-pandemic levels in 2019. At startups, the rate of new graduate hiring dropped from 30% in 2019 to under 6% in 2024.

Big tech companies are spending billions to build AI infrastructure, but layoffs continue. This year, over 62,114 tech workers have been laid off.