r/webdev • u/Proud-Confidence7290 • Nov 26 '23
Question Will AI decrease demand and salaries?
Hello everyone.
I am new to web development and it goes well so far.
I'm bit scared of AI development. Let's say you needed 10 developers for a project before ChatGPT and now you need 8.
With the development of AI, we will need even less.
Why do people think AI won't decrease demand and salaries of web developers? It's logic for me, what am I missing?
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u/DevDuderino Nov 26 '23
Yes, it's going to reduce demand for entry-level positions. With AI tools like Copilot becoming more sophisticated, it's clear that jobs requiring tasks with a lower 'context' or complexity are more at risk of automation.
For instance, in web development, tasks like basic HTML/CSS page layout and simple JavaScript functions for form validation are prime examples of areas where AI can quickly come to grips with the requirements.
These roles provide clear-cut, rule-based scenarios that Copilot-style tools excel at, potentially leading to a decline in demand for entry-level positions in web development. As these AIs evolve, they can absorb and replicate the repetitive patterns of coding, making the manual coding of such tasks increasingly redundant.
This does provide more opportunities at the top end of the career ladder, for now, but as these systems mature the job-destroying effects will propagate upwards through the seniority levels.