In the past couple of days, I came across two videos that help to understand and process what is happening with Software Developers.
The first one is about the transition phase we are experiencing, and some projections for the future, that might help to decide how to prepare professionally and align our skills with the future needs as AI progresses and becomes more capable.
The second video is more about how people feel about AI, both in management, but talking more about Software Developers. Either case, if you are a manager or executive, or a Software Developer yourself, it is worth watching.
More in the sections below.
About the transition from developer roles
YouTube video as reference:
As Laurie Voss says, “We are all product engineers now.”
AI automated code writing; it is about to automate code reviewing; the next is delivery and security.
Which is bad news for my earlier plan to count on learning AWS white papers and be good with it for a while.
What remains, based on Laurie’s opinion, is interviewing the baker about its needs, writing the specification, and letting AI build and ship it. We are about to become the interviewer. The product engineer.
I am still going to read the AWS white papers, as today I am relying on that role, but there were already discussions among us developers, the forward deploy engineer will be the next big thing.
A psychologist’s (also CEO’s) view and advice on the AI topic
Another video that I think is worth watching
By Dr. Alok Kanojia. As Google says, he “is an American psychiatrist, author, and online streamer who focuses on mental health issues affecting gamers, the internet generation, and young people.”
In this video, he has a point. He is more like exploring what the state of developers is as of Q3 2026, but he still uses some data from 2024. It is good, though, to raise some warning concerns for managers.
He talks about the state of mind and opinions on both sides, management and software developers.
Then he goes on to give some advice for developers on how to address and deliver concerns to management, which I know is true based on my experiences. I have been a messenger before, applying it the wrong way.
I would recommend watching his video, but the advice I took is to always match the excitement of managers and give some protective thoughts about the great ideas they have. Not to bluntly say straight to their face, that something is wrong and won’t work. People don’t like to hear that. But using SWOT analysis, as he explains, you can mix and match the good news with bad news, share the excitement, while also informing them about the risks they need to calculate with.
Alok also suggests that you document everything — when you said what and emailed what — so in case things go wrong and they want to play the blame game, you can protect yourself.
What do I do next?
Reflecting on these videos, and coming from the earlier posts, I am about to learn more about AWS itself, as my current role needs it.
I quickly realized the scale of the task, and also that it is a separate role to remain up to date and know everything that AWS has to offer. So I first try to take an overall high-level view of AWS services, and pick what is most relevant to the type of projects I am working on.
It will still take quite a bit of time to go through them, and I am not sure it will ever pay off. That is my best bet right now based on what I see in the job market.
Everything is moving so quickly and erratically, that even while trying to force myself to be all positive I have to sit down frequently and process what is happening to be able to find a positive path. But what I decide, write, and recommend might change in a couple of days, and not even months.
If you are in a similar situation, and you want to share your experiences, I welcome any feedback on the topics. Be here in the comments section, or anywhere on social media where you come across this article.
Thank you for reading, and have a good day 🙂
