Software engineers must upgrade their skills to survive in the age of artificial intelligence

Rapid advances in generative artificial intelligence are set to fundamentally change the landscape of software engineering; Research firm Gartner predicts 80 percent Engineers around the world will need to upgrade their skills over the next three years to keep up with technological advances, but some human aspects will still be necessary.

Philip Walsh, senior analyst at Gartner, wrote in his new report: “Artificial intelligence will change the future role of software engineers, but human expertise and creativity will always be necessary to deliver complex and innovative software.” Creating software based on artificial intelligence requires a person with new skills: an artificial intelligence engineer.

The future of software engineers in the era of productive artificial intelligence

Gartner describes the impact of AI in three stages: short-term, medium-term and long-term.

First, AI tools are expected to help engineers work more efficiently; Similar to how developers currently use ChatGPT and other AI tools. These tools will be of great benefit to senior developers who are already familiar with advanced engineering practices.

Then, in the mid-term, AI is expected to drive productivity even further and automate a broader set of developer tasks. In this period, the main role of human engineers will no longer be coding, but will be guiding artificial intelligence; in other words, Prompt engineering It will become a very important skill.

Gartner predicts that new jobs will be created in the long term:Artificial intelligence engineeringwhich will be a combination of software engineering, data science, machine learning and other related skills.

Currently, hundreds of different companies around the world are applying for prompt engineering jobs. Also, a Gartner survey of 300 organizations in the United States and the United Kingdom showed that more than half of them consider artificial intelligence and machine learning engineers to be their most in-demand job positions in 2024.