This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Magnus Grimeland, the CEO and founder of Antler, a global early-stage venture capital firm. He also cofounded Zalora, a fashion e-commerce platform in Asia. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
There have been a lot of headlines about software engineering being replaced by AI, based on the assumption that anyone can just go in and code any program with natural language. It’s actually much more likely that the need and demand for great software engineers will grow in the next couple of decades.
Even the best software engineers today make errors. AI models will also continue to make errors, at least for a very long time, and the only ones who will optimize this technology are software engineers.
At least over the next 20 to 30 years, what you will see is the best software engineers getting a tremendous amount of leverage to be more efficient and deliver better products faster. Software engineers will work in a different way than before.
In the not-too-distant future, we also need to adapt to an entirely new computer ecosystem, and the ones who are going to be able to do that are software engineers. We’ve already started investing in a few companies that are preparing for that.
Further specialization
AI will also lead to further specialization.
Today, software engineers are grouped a bit more generally. Some work on hardware, some on different types of software languages, and some are great mobile developers.
The complexity of the type of roles that you’ll see for software engineers will increase significantly because the way this is being implemented in different industries will require specialized goals.
You’ll also see fewer general engineers and more people who are really good at one specific thing.
Software engineers will work closer with businesses. AI will enable business leaders to work better with engineering departments because they can tinker with the early versions of the products themselves.
This should lead to more efficiency in terms of how the technical and less technical parts of the business work together, and that should actually give software engineering an even more important role in the business.
A new era of learning
When we were building Zalora and now at Antler, some of the best engineers we hired in Southeast Asia were self-taught.
They didn’t have computer science degrees from universities. They read up on the internet, tinkered, and built their own programs.
AI has made it better than ever to teach people — as long as they have the right drive and basic intrinsics to learn how to become a great software engineer.
You’ll see many more self-help people who are just as good as people who’ve done a full university degree.
