AI can create music, generate art, assist in cancer therapies, operate automobiles, and play games. It is also beginning to write code.
Does this suggest that human programmers' days are numbered? Will software development be automated? When you do testing on personal assistants like Siri, Google Assistant, or Cortana, you will see that the most common request they receive is:
Tell me a joke.
Is that all that Artificial Intelligence has to offer? Well, No. Its achievements are becoming more astounding by the day. So, what holds for the future?
In this MarsDevs article, let us give you more insights into how AI will impact the future of software development. So, let’s get started.
Convergence of AI and software engineering
Developers can now use AI as part of their development process. New AI-powered technologies aid in the creation of code, the detection of defects, the setup of test suites, and the generation of test and sample data.
AI can enhance a developer's productivity by reducing time spent on repetitive operations, highlighting faults, and assisting less experienced developers in producing code as if they had more expertise. However, there is a drawback: AI is notoriously unstable. You can test its functionality.
AIso conveys their work with seeming assurance, making their results appear right even when they are not. So, you need to have the necessary talent, knowledge, and experience in the subject matter to determine when it's incorrect.
However, AI can help write, maintain, and test code. While not everything will benefit, there are instances when AI may intervene and save hours or even days of effort. But it's not just about writing code. It is also about the code that is generated.
With the confluence of AI and software engineering, developers can design more intelligent, user-centric apps & software users' experiences will be more flexible and dynamic than traditional hand-coded applications.
Some apps adapt on the fly depending on real-time user feedback, and some software will resolve flaws and incompatibilities before the user notices them. It will never be flawless, but it will undoubtedly improve software.
As David Brodeur-Johnson exclaims, “2024 will be the year that companies get concerned about incorporating generative AI to their integral data sources & transform information and insights available to their employees to assist them in simplifying their jobs.”
Future of AI in Software Creation: Will It Replace Developers?
As the notion of AI continues to develop and expand across numerous industries, there is growing worry about whether the technology can eventually replace human capital. The issue is much scarier regarding software development, considering the significant technological advances in data analysis, machine learning, and natural language processing.
While AI has transformed numerous elements of the software development lifecycle and enhanced efficiency and productivity, there are several considerations to consider when determining whether the technology can replace developers. Let's look into these.
Challenges of Adopting AI
Despite the multiple benefits and tremendous potential of AI, there are an array of hurdles that prevent the technology from becoming widely used in the field of software development, including:
Interpretation complexity: Because of factors such as shifting user demands and context ambiguity, AI models need help distinguishing between what consumers truly desire and what they communicate.
Limited creativity: AI systems can only solve issues based on the rulesets supplied by humans, which restricts their inventiveness in problem-solving.
Ethical problems: There are ethical questions about whether AI can be trusted to make vital judgments autonomously without human intervention or control.
AI Tools and Developers
Instead of completely replacing developers, AI models are more likely to increase the competence and productivity of development teams. For example, AI can undertake low-value, repetitive operations that frequently need hours of human participation and accomplish them more quickly through automation.
On the other hand, developers can work alongside AI models and build quicker by doing higher-value jobs such as critical thinking around business logic and algorithm enhancement. As Ben Elms said, "If you approach AI as, 'It's going to change the world, and it's going to put people out of jobs,' well, it isn't -- it's going to create even more opportunity and jobs.”
Developer Roles Will Change
The merging of autonomous technology, such as AI, with a developer's everyday routine necessitates the transformation of established roles. For example, developers must learn new abilities to train AI models utilizing data sets.
Similarly, they will need experience administering, implementing, and maintaining AI products. Furthermore, developers must adopt new behaviors, such as continuous learning and development, to stay up with the dynamic and fast-growing AI world.
Transformative Advantages of AI in Software Development
Companies must plan ahead of time for AI's role in platform engineering. As a result of this new style of growth, new career possibilities will arise.
AI will be the new business analyst. The business analyst's job will be expanded to influence company strategy. AI will certainly write unique user stories, requirements, and acceptance criteria. Instead of collecting criteria, business analysts will evaluate AI-generated concepts and push business alignment to platform thinking.
Artificial intelligence and technology will be driving factors in business strategy, and business analysts will be the face of this arm of the plan. Interaction design vacancies will surpass UI design work opportunities.
Demand for UI design to individually structure websites and business process flows will reduce as visual AI advances. Through JavaScript design systems, graphical guidelines, and ongoing user testing, interaction designers will aid AI in creating UI and UX.
Software architects will wield AI. Even in the early stages of AI in software development, we are witnessing the rapid evolution of platform engineering. Businesses are rapidly abandoning point-SaaS solutions to consolidate on custom-built and SaaS-enabled platforms such as Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Workday.
Software architects are now creating governance systems to guide code standards, development methods, and other aspects. They will eventually use AI to develop, enforce, and grow these systems on their behalf.
Test architecture will emerge as a well-paid and in-demand profession. Continuous testing will be essential with autonomously created software. As the delivery lifecycle reduces, more testing will be demanded than ever before. There will need to be more to automate user testing based on acceptance criteria.
Test architects will create, install, and manage complex test infrastructures, test new features end-to-end, conduct exploratory testing regularly, and run ever-changing regression suites.
As Sanjay Gidwani said, “Ultimately, with AI as the foundation of SaaS, the day-to-day work of software builders will fundamentally change. Continuous testing will be the key factor in AI-based software development. It will finalize which businesses unleash & which will fall short in this latest pace of work.”
Looking Ahead
Should you look for artificial intelligence to make your software specs a reality?
Most likely not yet. It will be some time before AI can generate true, production-worthy code that is more than a few lines long. Software development is an inherently difficult task. Writing code from scratch consists of various pieces that must be smoothly combined to generate a working result.
Although breakthroughs in AI have been many and far-reaching, more is needed to replace humans, and it is capable of doing so sometime soon.
Instead of worrying about whether machines will take developers' jobs, staying with human programmers and designers with the know-how and creativity to build software your consumers enjoy is a better use of time.
Contact us if you want an experienced development team for your next software development endeavor. Grab a free 15-minute call right away!