It’s never been a better time to be a developer!
Scott Guthrie (Microsoft VP of Cloud) used to finish his tech talks at various Microsoft conferences with the phrase “It’s never been a better time to be a developer”. It was an inspirational catch-phrase, which of course, was correct: technology is always better today than it was yesterday.
However, in 2026, we enter a new era of “better”!
Improved Developer Efficiency
We used to dream about AI pair programmers. Now we have them, and they’re shockingly good. Claude Code, Github Copilot, Cursor, and other agentic coding assistants aren’t just autocomplete on steroids. They’re turning weeks of work into hours, and it’s not stopping at code completion:
- Natural language → full apps (v0, Replit Agent, Devin-style agents)
- AI reviewing your PRs and catching bugs before humans do
- Automated testing generation (Is TDD finally dead?)
- Documentation that writes itself
- Refactoring legacy codebases with a single prompt (or a few prompts)
- Fixing errors by simply copy/pasting them into Claude Code
We’re moving from “write code” → “guide AI to write code” → “describe what you want and let the AI figure out the how.”
A lot of old friction is quietly gone. Developers spend less time on plumbing and more time on creative, high-value work: solving real problems and inventing new features. We can do things much more efficiently now!
The era of solo-preneurs
Perhaps the most mind-blowing shift in 2026 is how AI has supercharged the rise of the solo-preneurs - developers building profitable businesses entirely alone, with no employees, no VC, and often while traveling the world.
A single engineer can build something that would have required a full engineering team 10 years ago. AI agents handle marketing, customer support, content creation, and even outbound sales. No-code + AI enables anyone to spin up MVPs in just days. Founders are launching AI-powered tools that solve “boring but profitable” problems - and scaling to 6–7 figures without ever hiring.
But wait... aren’t we all going to lose our jobs?
The AI doomer crowd has been loud. Headlines scream that 90% of code will be AI-generated by the end of 2026, entry-level jobs are collapsing, and predictions from big names like Dario Amodei or Geoffrey Hinton warn of massive white-collar displacement - even up to 50% of entry-level roles gone in the next few years.
The job market has shifted. Routine coding gigs are shrinking, juniors face a tougher ramp, and some companies are leaning harder on fewer, more senior people augmented by AI.
However, AI isn’t replacing developers - it’s replacing un-augmented developers. Demand for AI engineers, system architects, security specialists, and people who can steer these powerful tools is actually increasing.
History shows tech shifts don’t destroy jobs net-net. They create more jobs in the long run. Example: the internet didn’t eliminate jobs - it multiplied them. AI is doing the same: more software is being built, more problems solved, more industries digitized. Companies that adopt AI don’t shrink teams forever. They scale output, tackle bigger challenges, and open new markets.
The winners? Those who adapt. Human + AI hybrids - AI Engineers.
Think about how many problems still have to be solved: healthcare, education, transportation, package delivery, meal prep and shopping, even planning and booking a trip still requires tremendous effort spent on research. In the AI era all these things should be more efficient. Here is the opportunity!
Is This Time Really Different?
Yes! It’s not just a better time to be a developer.
It’s the best time in history…and tomorrow will probably top it.
We’re not just getting better tools. We’re getting a new kind of collaborator that gets smarter every month. Mundane tasks can be delegated to agents, and we can focus on the fun part of the job. Thinking clearly, using AI deliberately, and building unfair advantages in the area of your passion is the way!
Happy coding (and prompting) 🚀