My biggest prediction is that ORMs will not be necessary when LLMs can generate SQL. Low level SQL is a better abstraction for LLMs than ORMs, and as people are removed from the equation, so too will abstractions built to help them craft code.
I fear applications will suffer the same fate. "Good enough" will take over "well-architected".
Couple this with decreasing costs of storage (and ideally compute), and it doesn't matter if the data model is garbage, people can still get something workable that's better than the awful Excel files they curate now. It will still make errors, but eventually fewer than their spreadsheets.
There is no "good enough" for data modeling. There is correct, and there is "this works, but it has latent bugs that will eventually surface." You either have referential integrity, or you don't.
Not only that, but AI is way more expensive than we think. We're currently in a hype bubble funded by last ditch effort VC money. When that money runs out, and it will eventually, AI is going to get WAY more expensive.
Until a query becomes a bottleneck and no one knows why because no one knows how databases work anymore.
In the 20th century you got away with knowing the syntax and hacking away. Now you really need to have a deep understanding of relational algebra, since the LLM is doing the typing for you.
An LLM is just taking prefabbed templates and swapping the possibilities in the answer for a statistically relevant solution. My code generator outputs a prefabbed template with a deterministic solution no statistical guessing required.
Let’s say there is a reason to keep this 10K LOC together in a single file. I have never had work in SWE that involved making minor iterations to a file over a week where the work took a whole day to complete. I can see how that could happen but requiring a day to change code seems like there are bigger issues than a 10K LOC file. Unless I’m a complete amateur that thinks they’ve always been not an amateur, and needs an LLM to make a minor change. I just don’t see the point a lot of the times.
What do I do with all this extra time I’m saving? Retire early because I’m getting paid more for doing less right (and I saved all that time)?
How about when the LLM doesnt work right? If I’m a junior engineer that lets a computer write everything for me; How much time do I spend hacking at a prompt to get what I want vs just writing the damn code?
The utility of LLMs with code generation varies widely with the problem domain and the amount of experience the developer has.
Why wouldn’t the LLM use an ORM?