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Definitely, the problem is that companies need less of them, just like a construction company opening roads with machinery, or an automated factory.

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It could be that there are more companies though, companies that couldn't afford a large team before. Now they can start delivering value with just, say, 3 people, making the business worthwhile. At least that's one optimistic scenario.

For now that is balanced by the fact that we build more software, things that wouldn't be worth it before.

It's not balanced, the market keeps shrinking visibly.

There's CVs out there that would've made recruiters go mad 36 months ago sending their hundreth application.

Number of employed SWEs has maintained the same, slightly increased in fact.

Which companies?

If they weren't worth before, they aren't suddenly worth paying for now.

If the cost comes down, that could make something worth paying for when it previously was not.

Not enough to keep that exponential growth curve going.

Wait, I thought we were discussing loss of employment of engineers? Whether the AI companies continue their exponential growth curve is another question entirely. Making up for the (thus far hypothetical) loss of engineering roles doesn’t require the AI companies to even stay in business, let alone grow exponentially.

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