AI Could Replace Software Engineers Within 12 Months

Dario Amodei, CEO of AI safety company Anthropic, delivered a stark warning at the World Economic Forum in Davos: artificial intelligence could replace software engineers within six to twelve months. Speaking with The Economist, Amodei predicted that AI models will soon handle “most, maybe all” of what software engineers currently do, marking a dramatic shift in the technology workforce.

The Shift from Coding to Editing

Amodei’s bold claim is already manifesting within his own company. “I have engineers within Anthropic who say I don’t write any code anymore. I just let the model write the code, I edit it,” he revealed. This shift represents a fundamental change in how software development works—transforming engineers from code writers into code editors and supervisors overseeing AI-generated solutions.

The prediction immediately sparked heated debate across social media platforms. Tech professionals expressed concerns about job security, with one observer noting, “AI models will be able to do most, maybe all of what software engineers do end-to-end within 6 to 12 months, shifting engineers to editors.” The sentiment reflected widespread anxiety about potential widespread displacement in the field.

Cautious Optimism with Caveats

Despite his dramatic forecast, Amodei acknowledged uncertainty about the exact timeline. He noted that certain components—chip manufacturing and model training—cannot yet be fully automated, suggesting the transition may be more gradual than feared. Before founding Anthropic, Amodei served as Vice President of Research at OpenAI and worked as a Senior Research Scientist at Google Brain, lending credibility to his technical assessments.

The coming months will reveal whether Amodei’s predictions materialize or remain speculative.