It’s 2 a.m. I’m halfway through a beer, sitting across from my good friend. We’ve done this many times, arguing about tech, late into the night, each trying to convince the other they’re wrong. Sometimes it’s about programming languages, sometimes about remote work, sometimes about who should’ve never been promoted.

Tonight it’s AI (recently, it’s only AI). And it’s getting heated.

He’s at the edge of his seat, waving his hands like some sort of prophet of doom. “All software engineers are screwed,” he says. “AI is going to take over everything. You’ll see.”

I lean back, take a sip, and shake my head. “Not all of us,” I say. “Just the coders.”

That’s when things got interesting.

Coders vs Developers (Yeah, Again)

These words get thrown around like they mean the same thing. Coder, programmer, developer. It all kind of blends together, especially in job titles and HR speak.

But for the sake of this post, I’m going to draw a line.

• Coders are people who only write code. They take a ticket, search Stack Overflow (or nowadays, paste it into ChatGPT), patch something together, and call it a day
• Developers are people who build software. They think in systems. They understand design decisions, trade-offs, and long-term impact. They don’t just solve problems, but they figure out the right problems to solve.

Both write code. But only one knows what they’re doing beyond the code.

And AI is very good at replacing coders.

Why Coders Should Be Worried

Let’s be real. In the last few years, especially during the COVID hiring boom, the tech industry pulled in a ton of people who honestly weren’t ready.

Demand was high. Supply was low. Companies were desperate. So people with very little understanding of software engineering fundamentals got hired fast. Some learned the basics from bootcamps. Some jumped in from other industries. Some just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Now, with AI tools improving and the hype settling down, a lot of those folks are being laid off.

But here’s the thing: AI isn’t causing the layoffs. The layoffs are happening because many of those roles never had much depth in the first place.

If your whole job was taking a vague ticket and gluing together some JavaScript you barely understood, then yeah, you’re replaceable. Sorry if I sound rough, but it’s true.

Developers Are Still Needed — More Than Ever

And here’s where I pushed back hard during our argument. Good developers are not going anywhere. In fact, they’re the ones making all this AI progress possible.

They’re building the tools, improving the workflows, designing the systems that scale. They understand trade-offs. They can lead teams through messy migrations. They know what needs to be done when the product, business, and tech all pull in different directions.

AI can autocomplete a function. It can’t design a resilient system that handles real-world chaos. It can suggest a fix. It can’t mentor a junior engineer or navigate a political roadmap meeting.

AI is fast, sure. But good developers are smart, adaptable, and connected to the bigger picture.

AI Is Just Another Tool

Every time a new tool comes around, people panic. We saw this with high-level languages, IDEs, cloud computing, no-code platforms. Now it’s AI.

You can argue it’s different, and its potential is unprecedented. Yes, but it’s still just a potential at this point. We’re still figuring out how to use it effectively and make it work for everyone. Most importantly, we’re figuring out if we can make it work for everyone.

But developers don’t panic. They adapt. They look at the tool, figure out how to use it, and make their work better. That’s what separates them from coders who just want to copy/paste their way through the day.

Wrapping Up

It’s almost 4 a.m. now. The bar’s closing soon (it’s late even for the hipsterish place in the middle of Berlin), and neither of us is totally convinced. But I can tell he’s thinking about it.

So here’s the takeaway:

Coders are in trouble. Developers are not. And the more you understand the whole system, the code, the business, the people, the safer you are.