AI and developer obsolescence: is this the beginning of the end?

Wednesday 12th March 2025, 6:30 pm.

Speaker: Seb Rose – consultant, coach, trainer, analyst, and developer for over 40 years.

Venue: Computershare Limited, Edinburgh House, 4 North St. Andrew Street, Edinburgh EH2 1HJ

Refreshments and networking from 6:00 pm.

This event is free of charge and open to all, though registration is required.

Synopsis

Everything looks solvable if you ignore most of the complications. Many things look impossible when you’re overwhelmed by the details.

Abstraction has been fundamental in helping humanity harness computing technology to deliver world changing solutions. But, over the years, there have been many failed attempts to raise the level of abstraction and empower the wider population to create software without the need for specialist developers. And the need for skilled software developers has risen inexorably.

Does the current interest in AI and low/no code development simply herald the cyclical return of our economy's yearning for ever higher levels of abstraction and reduced reliance on software developers? Or has the technological landscape changed sufficiently to make developer obsolescence a more likely outcome?

About the speaker

Seb has been a consultant, coach, designer, analyst and developer for over 40 years. He has been involved in the full development lifecycle with experience that ranges from architecture to support, from C to Visual Basic.

During his career, he has worked for companies large (e.g. IBM, Amazon) and small, and has extensive experience of failed projects. He's now an independent software consultant and trainer, promoting effective ways of working to the software development and testing community.

Regular speaker at conferences and occasional contributor to software journals. Co-author of the BDD Books series "Discovery” and "Formulation" (bddbooks.com), lead author of “The Cucumber for Java Book” (Pragmatic Programmers), and contributing author to “97 Things Every Programmer Should Know” (O’Reilly).

He blogs at claysnow.co.uk and socialises as @sebrose.bsky.social