Not Another AI Panic Post but Just What’s Actually Happening in AI Right Now
This is a long post, read it only if you genuinely care about your job. If the looming AI storm stresses you out, feel free to skip it.
I’m a seasoned AI engineering manager based in San Francisco. I’ve been deep in this space for over a few years. Built systems, led teams, scaled products. But what I’m seeing out here right now? t’s different. It’s bigger. And most people have no clue how fast it’s coming for their jobs.
Everywhere I go - cafes, meetups, casual hangs, people won’t shut up about AI agents. Everyone’s out here tryna build the next big GenAI startup like it’s a freakin’ gold rush. Ain’t nobody tryna code anymore, they’re just wiring up agents to do all the dev work for them. Full-blown software pipelines, DevOps, SWE, QA, Data, Security, getting bodied. Web dev? Already smoked. That shit’s over. Just chaining LLMs to ship products faster than full engineering teams ever could.
This is the exact reason why you see many posts about the US job market collapse and not encouraging students to go to the US for masters, all those fancy cost cutting covers are just bullshit. Software engineering as we know it is being automated from the top-down.
Entry-level jobs? Already gone, Mid-level roles? Getting phased out by fine-tuned agents, Even senior engineers? Only safe if they’re building the AI that’s replacing everyone else.
Just as you know Sam Altman tweeted saying they're short of GPUs, and last month they collaborated with the US govt, Cisco, NVIDIA and building 500 billion dollars worth of AI infrastructure. OpenAI’s Chief Product Officer straight up said they’re focused on building reasoning models, Models that can think through a prompt for months. Let that cook for a second. The kind of reasoning models that don’t just answer questions, they solve problems you can’t even define yet.
So if you’re sittin’ around chillin’ on your React app or tuning Jenkins pipelines like it’s 2019, wake the fuck up. I don't even know what to suggest for SWs but at least Learn how these models work. Dive into LLMs. Understand token limits, context windows, prompt engineering, reasoning trees. Hell, build an agent. Or at least know what one is before you get tossed.
Agents don’t sleep. They don’t quit. They don’t ask for raises. Your job description just became a prompt template. And You’re not getting replaced by someone cheaper - you’re getting replaced by something smarter. Let that sink in And that’s the nicest way I can put it.
I'm not saying this is happening tomorrow - this is in the next 3-4 years, I'm even scared if I'll be able to save my job it's that scary if you truly understand & worked on AI.
Anyone disagreeing with AI not taking jobs - you probably don't know what AI's brother. We are so sorry and good luck.
And that’s the nicest way I can put it, The truth is stop glorifying your jobs. Stack some cash. Hard times are coming for all of us. Especially if you're in that 25–35 range, just starting out or juggling family expenses, consider this a wake-up call. Spend wisely. No one should have to face supporting a family while jobless or even on the edge of losing one.
GOD BLESS ALL OF US.
Talking product sense with Ridhi
9 min AI interview5 questions
Crazy how you are an "AI Engineering Manager" and don't even know how LLMs and Agents work.
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They can't reason the correct approach that needs to be taken, they need to be actively prompted to steer in the right direction.
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They don't understand the tradeoffs of writing large amounts of code. To fix the code they just keep on adding code rather than removing it.
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They can't do RCAs well enough and they can't do testing because that involves seeing logs, consoles, reading up code, searching web, maybe seeing open source code etc.
Last but not the least they are token output machines who inherently can't check if the output they are producing is right or wrong.
At this point I am convinced people at the top dunno shit and just know fancy terms like "AI Agents".
IMHO , while the above is correct, in a typical SWE Role if code is automated and optimized from the get go , wouldnt wages come down for SWEs ??
If you want the best info about AI never listen to AI gurus at these companies lol, they always overhype it up. I've used agent mode in my job, it's nowhere close to replicating even a junior dev. It thinks for 20-30 mins and gets stuck or returns an error token limit exhausted. Best usecase is for single line autocomplete and asking stack overflow questions. Anything novel that is not found on the Internet and the AI struggles, clearly showing that it's just a glorified autocomplete.
Let's consider a ideal scenario.
A few companies who work in consumer products,mfg, pharma, IT employ AI agents to completely remove the human workforce. Even paid labour who picks material from the shelf and puts it in a truck using humanoid and automated cranes(it's possible. Check SAPs announcement for collaboration with a robotics company for EWM solutions)
So assuming all the workforce loses jobs in coming years or shifts to low paid jobs.
Result: procurement power gets reduced in demand side.
Now this won't show effect on premium products as nobody from lower to middle class goes for it.
But it will affect sale of consumer, Pharma and small mfg industries.
Which further can reduce the revenue and sale of such sectors.
Now counter for this argument can be. AI will create new jobs. No it won't. It's made to reason, actually logically. AI integrated with actuator can do work better. A welding robot with AI as eg.
So how does a company with low revenue keep up with the Token cost of AI. It doesn't.
Shortly you can imagine this scenario as really advanced company trying to sell product to customer who can't afford it.
Unless any implications come over use of AI
Ok
sap does lot of bullshit. it's all shining advertisement. inside it's hollow lol
Even if we consider AI will replace humans, then who who will be buyer of this products without incone . If income reduce then we can see effect on every industry.
Don't worry that won't be free, Indian developers will still be cheaper than using these agents. Only the engineers who are getting paid way more than industry average will be at risk.
I saw a thread on reddit where Claude opus charged $10 for a simple feature.
Initially everything is free, sooner or later they have to charge. And which company would be crazy enough to give whole the control to AI?
It is also a software product and it will always have bugs.
Toh kya kare? Apne kirana store open karna padega 😉
Surviving a kiran store in indian metros is as difficult as sustaining a job in this market, if not tougher.
I've been in QComm for years, family runs a grocery store - the business is collapsing.
I noticed recently that Kirana stores dont get as many customers now. Only a couple of old folks, thats all
So moving to AI development is a smarter move or AI will replace this role also? I can't even imagine if AI itself starts to build new AI agents 😐
Same question above :)
For that it's better to know how to build AI and also to make boundaries for it
All AI products solve the same set of problems. All these products look and feel the same, they give the same answers and solutions. This entire AI gold rush will collapse soon. Who are these people building these agents for? There won’t be any end user.
AI fatigue is already here. People easily catch what’s written or generated by AI and give preference to human written or created content.
Only saas bros will lose their jobs because they shouldn’t have existed in the first place.
Those who still THINK will thrive.
agreed
What is an AI Engineering Manager ? AI who’s an engineering manager?
Seems like AI posted about himself in GV