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As AI continues to take on more and more new competencies, junior coding, as we knew it, is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Tasks that used to be the bread and butter for junior developers — such as repetitive scripting, HTML layout or simple DevOps setups — are now being reliably handled by AI assistants like ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot and Amazon CodeWhisperer.
This is not just an upgrade to speed and efficiency — we are looking at a serious structural change here. So where does that leave entry-level developers? And, speaking more broadly, where does it leave the software industry as a whole?
The vanishing beginner level
For decades, software engineering as a field had a fairly predictable pathway: Begin with the basics, build some landing pages, write test cases, troubleshoot minor bugs. As your skills grow, you can move toward architectural thinking and product ownership.
