AI is enhancing software engineering roles, not replacing them, says Gartner

As artificial intelligence continues to reshape industries, concerns about AI-generated code replacing human developers have sparked fear and uncertainty. However, according to Gartner analysts, such worries are misplaced.

Manjunath Bhat, VP Analyst, Gartner, said, “There is perception that since AI can automatically generate code, it can technically replace software engineers. There is also uncertainty and doubt that AI code generation might replace engineers, but that’s a misplaced notion. We believe it won’t replace software engineers, but evolve the role itself.”

He added that AI doesn’t mean the need for software engineers will go away, but make the repetitive or routine aspects of the role less cumbersome.

In terms of where the technology is today, there are three phases, Bhat explained. “Currently, we are working within existing boundaries. The AI disruption spectrum goes from how AI augments existing workflows where developers don’t have to change their ways of working, so they might continue within their existing IDs.”

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India represents the bulk of the software development market. Future forecasts indicate that the highest growth in software developers will come out of India, and Indian developers are well exposed to AI-augmented assistance - otherwise called AI code assistance or AI test assistance. “India is ranked as one of the countries with the highest percentage of open source consumption. We have a huge exposure to open source in GitHub, and so, by extension, we also understand how to use tools like GitHub copilot.”

The second step in the spectrum is pushing boundaries to see if certain parts of the task can be offloaded to an agent. The last phase of the spectrum is to break out of boundaries where it won’t just change how one works, but the kind of work produced. “You no longer will be creating just traditional software, but AI-empowered or intelligent software. This means your future software engineers will be a blend of traditional developers and AI Engineers.”

According to a Gartner survey of over 5,000 digital workers in the US, UK, India, Australia, and China, employees said they saved an average of 3.6 hours per week by using GenAI. But not all employees get the same degree of benefit from using GenAI.

Bern Elliot, distinguished VP Analyst, Gartner, said, “AI is useful when it’s fit for purpose, applied right for the right people. It was found that people hired less than two years ago did not find the tool useful because they didn’t understand the product well enough to realise if the suggestions were what they were looking for. Whereas, the ones who had been there for a longer period had a good understanding of what they wanted to produce. Having a tool that produced suggestions and evaluations for them was useful.”

Speaking about how the secondary effects of AI are the real disruptors, Soyeb Barot, VP Analyst, Gartner said, “When we look at any technology in the past, like the internet, cloud computing, or machine learning, we’ve always looked at technology as an accelerator. Now, with AI and the various techniques within AI, including Gen AI, everybody is looking at the first-order impacts around creativity and discovery, speed, predictive power, accuracy, and cost reduction. The bigger value is taking these first-order impacts and extending them further to identify if you can disrupt the space.”

If the first-order effects or impacts are enabling cost reduction or a new business revenue stream, he said, organisations can evaluate if the technology can disrupt and change the rules of the industry itself, and to see if it can have a bigger impact on an ecosystem.

He added that since AI is here to stay, it is a technology that will not replace people, but augment and give an efficiency boost, and the creativity surplus required.