Software engineers worry AI tools like Copilot will cause job loss
17 posts across 7 communities in the last 30 days; 47% from r/cscareerquestions.
“Just going to use this thread to also add a nit: I hate that Microsoft made all the OEMs add a Copilot key to all their laptop keyboards. It's been Ctrl forever, and suddently they throw this net-negative key onto the keyboard. I have decades of habit of using the right side…”
“u/xtazyiam Yeah, that’s a good point. No bot in the call doesn’t really solve the problem if the audio or transcript still gets sent somewhere people don’t fully control. Copilot might be different for companies already using Microsoft 365, but I guess it depends a lot on how…”
“hate to say it but it’s within their authority. You can just help highlight risks and find solutions that work both ways as much as possible.”
Several posts express concern about the impact of generative AI, specifically Microsoft's Copilot, on software engineering roles and the future viability of SWE careers. Some users suggest that AI may render some developers obsolete or lead to reduced hiring opportunities.
SOURCES (60)
“I think this is exactly what we will see though. Extensive automated tests, continuous refactoring.”
If there are no jobs no one will buy their 5 dollars morning lattes.
“I don’t think anyone will care about your opinion on codebases in 3 years. Thank you for your service.”
“There is ultimately no safe career if dusruption continues. If you are a dev you need to own stuff and be on product side too. But the reality is all jobs will be impacted on slightly different timelines”
“I've thought about it a lot myself as well. I don't think there is a safe career plan. By the time you become proficient in another career, that field may be hit as well. Currently, the biggest impact of AI is in software engineering, but I don't think it will stay that way. AI capabilities will keep improving. LLMs may have flaws, but I am convinced they are already capable enough to brute-force their way toward finding better architectures. Just look at how they are solving increas”
“So it's not serious when a new grad does it but it is even a 20YOE does? Plenty of people with 10YOE have already been saying this.”
“100%. 20+ yoe should be set up for retirement already. Career plan should involve margaritas + beach in sub 5 years.”
“What a bleak prospect, in essence humans are more easily replaced than thought is his conclusion”
“Yeah these posts are always by dudes that have never worked a hard physical job, and who probably went to university right after high school with no work experience besides SWE. They don’t understand that becoming a tradesperson has tons of downsides to it, to a much higher degree than software jobs. In the trades you are working onsite every day, in whatever weather and traffic exists, starting at 7am. Many job sites are not heated or cooled, so have fun baking in the summer and freezing your f”
“Bro just give up now and enjoy life while you're still alive. Stop keeping your head in the sand.”
“You're not helping train anything. It uses RLVR. You can do whatever you want, sadly it doesn't matter”
“Just going to use this thread to also add a nit: I hate that Microsoft made all the OEMs add a Copilot key to all their laptop keyboards. It's been Ctrl forever, and suddently they throw this net-negative key onto the keyboard. I have decades of habit of using the right side Ctrl key for varying shortcut strokes, and then when I use it now it loads up an unproductive Copilot experience that is awful.”
“Real shame we don't have many unions in this field. That "they need us more than we need them" is perfect for a strike, or at least threatening to strike until we get stuff like more SWEs, QA, DevOps, etc. Not to mention better benefits, pay, etc. Granted generally we're well compensated already but some companies are stingy on that, like shifting more of the health insurance cost (in the US that is) onto employees. And switching to "unlimited" PTO to quietly limit it”
Feels like /r/REBubble that has been begging for a crash for a decade now
“AI.exe was high in the processor list, killed it, and the lagging stopped immediately. Smoking gun. Whatever's going on involves copilot, though it sounds like it's going to be some kind of interaction with another application. next time you have a live example, analyze the wait chain on it in resmon before you kill it. and yes, def check whether the policy applied; run machine policy & eval. Probably gonna want to get them on Zoom or something for this; it's not the kind of thin”
“The short answer is you do not survive this if you stay. But the second the AI hype dies down or the cracks get too big to hide, he’ll be the first out the door. With his family safety net and sky-high arrogance, he has zero reason to stick around and fix the mess. Somebody in the position of CTO that is this incompetent with the meat and bones of their role, but is beyond expert at playing politics will find every scapegoat in the lineup to throw them under the bus before they are actually perc”
“At the end of the day, for a plane, lots of things can go wrong. So you need a backup for the bot, a human. And you need a backup for that human, a co-human. For the humans to be a useful backup, they need the full training regimen.”
“Ok, that might be the case, but that’s a wholly different claim. That’s a position I’ve always held, in as much this LLM et al technology is not sufficient for actual AGI / ASI. They might help with research to get there, but that is not the same as saying the technology has those capabilities.”
“Bingo. Not to mention the fact it will actually be more expensive than an SWE to use their services post enshittification period. Remember when an Uber cost $5 for a 10 mile trip and then 5 years later it was $50 for the same ride? Do you remember when airbnb used to have houses for rent that were 1/2 the cost of a hotel? People on my team currently use $3-5k worth of tokens per month. In a few years its not unimaginable that Anthropic will be charging more than what a human would cost, yet taki”
“If you enjoy swe then keep grinding, if you don’t you’re early career so good time to switch to something you like”
“u/xtazyiam Yeah, that’s a good point. No bot in the call doesn’t really solve the problem if the audio or transcript still gets sent somewhere people don’t fully control. Copilot might be different for companies already using Microsoft 365, but I guess it depends a lot on how their setup and policies are configured. Do you see companies treating Copilot differently from tools like Otter or Fireflies, or is it usually the same concern either way?”
“Tbh there might be zero jobs left and who knows how the world will look like then, but I do think swe is going to turn into basically a technical PM role first if it hasn't already.”
“Why not? If you go look at the salary subreddit and swe subreddit there are a lot of folks who went to the military for non combat role like in communication and leveraged that into big tech. Not to mention you will get your gi bill and use that to get your masters for free. But that was a suggestion esp if you want to make livable wage and 50 to 60k. Military will easily get you that and more in long term benefits. I guess in my opinion military for 2/3 year with full benefit beats retail job i”
“I mean... damn... I think this is really predictable. Only an idiot would expect it not to be like this. With all due respect to my fellow idiots!”
Yeah, is like riding a bike but for performance we need practice.
“lol no https://www.trueup.io/layoffs and click to layouffs by year as for now, 2026 IS BEST YEAR IN LAST FIVE! You understand? this is statistically best year! Stop dooming in reddit echo chambers. Stop coping that ai replace someone, it replace shit.”
“Not nearly to the same extent. Same with every sub with a notable techies presence.”
“For swe, 2026 is quite bad. I actually left swe to join an Ai company doing Ai stuff. Note I only work remote though for 2 decades.”
“For sure, but when you have no pilot nor cockpit in a bigass plane, you wanted to make sure everything can be flown safely, even though the environment is challenging”
“Yeah most of it is just doom slop. Who’s going to be senior when junior and mid level roles vanish (they already are)?”
“Do you expect that they'll pull something along those lines again in the future?”
“Sorry I think some places actually need to make money and can’t exist off apocalyptic levels of speculation.”
“50 upvotes too. Tells yon the state of this subreddit. People are stuck in the stone ages here. I can’t imagine using Agile in 2026. That’s like using waterfall in 2010.”
“Kinda/yes - it’s mostly just a wrapper There are rumors they’ve been testing kimi in copilot which outperforms Anthropic and OpenAI on the Harvey bench (legal benchmark) So yes. But ultimately, a tool is only as good as its user”
“Yeah I may be in the minority here but I think AI has shifted my personal ceiling from Senior to Principal honestly.”
“Presumably you guys will have Copilot Premium in your jobs, how are you taking full advantage of it? submitted by /u/hhaahhahahahhah [link] [comments]”
“"nobody is hiring" except all the people that are "all job postings are fake" do you have a source for this or you just guessing "everyone is replaced by AI" also wildly untrue, some people sure but most people are just expected to output more with AI”
“It’s true. I mean, you still have to know how to read code at the very least, but I haven’t written a line in a while… it’s kind of insane.”
“I use it to find files... apart from that I haven't found any use for copilot as it isn't very good.”
“Lmaooo fr. At big companies it's common for QA / SDET to be paid the same as backend swe and they actually get mad that they're making the same salary So many swes are weirdly insecure. And now QAs are less likely to get laid off because it's less saturated and harder to replace”
“By who? Who is going to pay you a "reasonable wage" to build and maintain a thing that is fundamentally designed to lose them money? Who is going to invest in that? What happens when their money dries up because they're spending to lose”
“How do you optimize your copilot? submitted by /u/EntranceFun9276 [link] [comments]”
“Lol like this fucking dude is a Billionaire trying to trash our whole industry for a quick buck. No one is trying to stop you from doing anything. They're stopping you from being taken advantage of.”