The economics of the force multiplier is too high to ignore, and I’m guessing an SWEs who don’t learn how to use it consistently and effectively will be out of the job market in 5 or so years.
Back in the early 2000s the sentiment was that IDEs were a force multiplier that was too high to ignore, and that anyone not using something akin to Visual Studio or Eclipse would be out of a job in 5 or so years. Meanwhile, 20 years later, the best programmers you know are still using Vim and Emacs.
They'll be more employable, not less. Since they're the only ones who will be able to fix the huge mess left behind by the people relying on them.
Don't think so.
There is nothing to learn, the entry barrier is zero. Any SWE can just start using it when they really need to.
I’m sceptical
The models seem to still (claude opus 4.5) not get things right, and miss edge cases, and work code in a way that’s not very structured.
I use them daily, but I often have to rewrite a lot to reshape the codebase to a point where it makes sense to use the model again.
I’m sure they’ll continue to get better, but out of a job better in 5 years? I’m not betting on it.