Techie's lift conversation with his manager leaves internet with mixed feelings
A developer's lift conversation with his skip manager about AI coding spilled onto Reddit. The exchange triggered a wider debate on how leadership sees engineers' role in software teams.
A casual lift conversation with his senior manager left a software developer questioning how company leadership views artificial intelligence, prompting a wider debate online about AI's growing role in software engineering.
The discussion was shared on Reddit's r/developersIndia forum in a post titled, "A conversation with my skip manager made me realise how these upper management thinks of AI."
Recounting the exchange, the developer said he was chatting with his skip manager in the lift when the topic shifted to artificial intelligence. According to him, the manager remarked that "no one has thought that AI is going to become so capable that it's going to write code for us."
The employee responded by saying that while AI had become a powerful coding assistant, he believed it had reached a stage where engineers would still be needed to review the code it generated. "There will always be an engineer required for the job," he recalled telling his manager.
What followed, he said, caught him off guard.
His skip manager smirked before replying that, in the future, entire software features would be built entirely by AI without requiring any human involvement. The developer said the confidence with which the statement was delivered left him feeling frustrated.
Describing the interaction, he wrote that it wasn't just the opinion itself that bothered him, but what he perceived as the "level of ignorance and arrogance and lack of empathy."
He added that the conversation made him feel as though the importance of software engineers was steadily being diminished by people in leadership positions.
Take a look at the post here:
The post quickly attracted responses from other developers, many of whom shared differing views on AI's impact on the industry.
Some argued that senior leaders often speak with excessive confidence about technologies they don't fully understand, saying that holding a management position does not necessarily mean having the deepest technical expertise.
Others took a more pragmatic view, suggesting that even if AI doesn't completely replace engineers, it is already making developers more productive. They pointed out that higher productivity could still lead companies to reduce team sizes, increase workloads and put downward pressure on salaries over time.
Several users also said the conversation highlighted the need for professionals to adapt alongside AI rather than dismiss its growing capabilities, arguing that the real challenge lies in finding ways for technology and human expertise to complement each other instead of viewing them as competitors.
A casual lift conversation with his senior manager left a software developer questioning how company leadership views artificial intelligence, prompting a wider debate online about AI's growing role in software engineering.
The discussion was shared on Reddit's r/developersIndia forum in a post titled, "A conversation with my skip manager made me realise how these upper management thinks of AI."
Recounting the exchange, the developer said he was chatting with his skip manager in the lift when the topic shifted to artificial intelligence. According to him, the manager remarked that "no one has thought that AI is going to become so capable that it's going to write code for us."
The employee responded by saying that while AI had become a powerful coding assistant, he believed it had reached a stage where engineers would still be needed to review the code it generated. "There will always be an engineer required for the job," he recalled telling his manager.
What followed, he said, caught him off guard.
His skip manager smirked before replying that, in the future, entire software features would be built entirely by AI without requiring any human involvement. The developer said the confidence with which the statement was delivered left him feeling frustrated.
Describing the interaction, he wrote that it wasn't just the opinion itself that bothered him, but what he perceived as the "level of ignorance and arrogance and lack of empathy."
He added that the conversation made him feel as though the importance of software engineers was steadily being diminished by people in leadership positions.
Take a look at the post here:
The post quickly attracted responses from other developers, many of whom shared differing views on AI's impact on the industry.
Some argued that senior leaders often speak with excessive confidence about technologies they don't fully understand, saying that holding a management position does not necessarily mean having the deepest technical expertise.
Others took a more pragmatic view, suggesting that even if AI doesn't completely replace engineers, it is already making developers more productive. They pointed out that higher productivity could still lead companies to reduce team sizes, increase workloads and put downward pressure on salaries over time.
Several users also said the conversation highlighted the need for professionals to adapt alongside AI rather than dismiss its growing capabilities, arguing that the real challenge lies in finding ways for technology and human expertise to complement each other instead of viewing them as competitors.
