Are AI and developers the world’s best friends or is artificial intelligence a threat to the future of programmers? As artificial intelligence models are becoming increasingly sophisticated, many questions are raised about the future of developers across the industry. Will AI replace programmers entirely, as Eric Schmidt and Dario Amodei are predicting? Will junior developers be facing extinction, as Steve Yegge surmised in a now-famous blog post? Or are we witnessing the dawn of a new era in which technology amplifies human creativity rather than replacing it? I interviewed Nathaniel Okenwa, Developer Evangelist at Twilio, to pick his brains about this question, and his conclusion is that, in the future, software development will undoubtedly remain human-driven even though many changes will occur. The video recording of that interview is available at the end of this blog post.



Developers and AI: the Path to the Future of Coding







With nearly a decade of hands-on programming experience and a unique perspective on developer community engagement, Nathaniel Okenwa brought both technical depth and strategic insight to this conversation about the evolving landscape of software development.







Spreading the Gospel of Developer Tools



“My parents celebrated when I got that job title of developer evangelist,” Okenwa said. “I speak and meet with developers, online or in person, and I talk about the tools and the technologies they’re using. A part of this job is being with the community and then spreading the good news of Twilio as well.”



AI and programmers, a love-hate relationship? — image antimuseum.com



For those unfamiliar with the company, “Twilio is a customer engagement platform and one of the providers helping businesses with their customer support, communication tools, and APIs.”



The Junior Developer Dilemma



The elephant in the room for the Tech industry is the fate of junior developers. Steve Yegge’s provocative piece ‘The Death of the Junior Developer’ has sparked intense debate, suggesting that AI won’t make inexperienced developers smarter but will enable experienced programmers to eliminate the need for juniors altogether. A daunting perspective for young programmers.



Nathaniel offers a more nuanced perspective that challenges this binary thinking .




Often, a company doesn’t hire junior developers for their current capabilities. They recruit them because they’re investing in what they will become in the future. Junior developers need to exist if we are going to have mid-level senior developers, developer leaders, and architects at a later time.




Nathaniel is right. Programming isn’t just about syntax and algorithms; it’s about developing problem-solving instincts, understanding business contexts, and learning to translate human needs into technological solutions.



‘If you want to create the next generation of builders, then I don’t think junior developers are going to disappear in the long term. We may forget how important they are for a little bit, but they will definitely make a comeback later on.’



The Eric Schmidt Prophecy: Six Months to Obsolescence?



The urgency of these questions intensified when Eric Schmidt,