Will AI replace Software Developers?
AI reaches a large part of this job’s work.
48/100
High exposure
More exposed to AI than 77% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 34% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 90% of the work
What the job involves
Research, design, and develop computer and network software or specialized utility programs. Analyze user needs and develop software solutions, applying principles and techniques of computer science, engineering, and mathematical analysis. Update software or enhance existing software capabilities. May work with computer hardware engineers to integrate hardware and software systems, and develop specifications and performance requirements. May maintain databases within an application area, working individually or coordinating database development as part of a team.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Already happening(6)
- Analyze user needs and software requirements to determine feasibility of design within time and cost constraints.
- Analyze information to determine, recommend, and plan installation of a new system or modification of an existing system.
- Modify existing software to correct errors, adapt it to new hardware, or upgrade interfaces and improve performance.
- Consult with customers or other departments on project status, proposals, or technical issues, such as software system design or maintenance.
- Store, retrieve, and manipulate data for analysis of system capabilities and requirements.
and 1 more
Within reach(9)
- Develop or direct software system testing or validation procedures, programming, or documentation.
- Confer with systems analysts, engineers, programmers and others to design systems and to obtain information on project limitations and capabilities, performance requirements and interfaces.
- Determine system performance standards.
- Design, develop and modify software systems, using scientific analysis and mathematical models to predict and measure outcomes and consequences of design.
- Supervise the work of programmers, technologists and technicians and other engineering and scientific personnel.
and 4 more
Out of reach(2)
- Confer with data processing or project managers to obtain information on limitations or capabilities for data processing projects.
- Supervise and assign work to programmers, designers, technologists, technicians, or other engineering or scientific personnel.
Also called
Developer · Software Engineer · Application Developer · Application Integration Engineer · DevOps Engineer (Development Operations Engineer) · Software Developer · Systems Engineer · Computer Application Developer
Related jobs
What these numbers mean
The score is the share of this job’s work, weighted by how important and frequent each task is, that AI could do in half the time: tasks an AI model could do alone count in full, tasks that need software built on AI count half.
“AI already used” is the share of the work in tasks where people are recorded using AI today. “As AI tools mature” counts every task AI could halve, with or without extra software.
The percentile compares the score with every job’s, weighted by how many people in the US do each one. Exposure means AI could change how the work is done, not that the job goes away. These are estimates for the typical job, not predictions.
Sources
- O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
- GPTs are GPTs: Labor market impact potential of LLMs (task labels), Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin & Rock (2023), OpenAI and University of Pennsylvania
- Anthropic Economic Index: labor market impacts (task penetration), Anthropic
- Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (national and metropolitan areas), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics