‘I don’t believe the private jet class’: Developers question who really benefits from the AI boom

Artificial intelligence (AI) was supposed to streamline coding, reduce repetition and open up time for software developers. For some developers, that possibility looks more constrained: longer working hours, the need to learn new tools and the pressure to produce more are some of the expectations from them at work.

A software professional with more than nine years of experience in machine learning recently posted on Reddit about the pressure of her job in the past year and a half has gotten to the point of being close to burn out. The experience prompts the question: if AI can speed up the ability of developers to write code, why are some of them working harder than ever?

“Over the last year or so I am and most of my friends and colleagues are working 10–12 hours a day, six days a week as companies have shifted to being "AI-first" or "AI-native," it is absolutely contrary to the claim that AI would make developers' lives easier and cut down on work time the exact opposite is happening.

This is happening partly because we constantly have to learn new AI-related development tools, and partly because management pressures us to speed things up,” wrote the user.

The problem starts when the time it takes to do a task is seen as an opportunity to do more, rather than to finish earlier. If a developer can write two times more code with artificial intelligence, management might decide that the developer is going to write two times more code rather than finish the assignment half as fast.

If an employee who used to take eight hours to write, test and correct code for one project can do it in four with the help of an AI coding tool, the company has an option. Either the developer can finish in half the time, or the company can assign another project. If the company chooses the latter, the developer will have more work to deliver (the new assignment) in less time (the four hours) than they would have otherwise.

Developers might be able to create more code, but they also have to find issues with the code that AI tools generated, test edge cases and ensure that the software is functioning properly. The faster code generation does not necessarily mean the faster completion of the development process.

The push to make companies AI-first and AI-native means that the responsibility of developers is to learn tools, processes and methods that might be shifting. For developers that are already under pressure to complete assignments on time, it can be an additional task beyond what they expect in their jobs.

While developers spend the morning writing product code and the afternoon checking code that AI tools generated for errors, they might spend the evening learning a new development tool introduced at work. While the tool might help the developer save time eventually, learning the tool takes time and effort. If the time it takes them to learn the new tool is time that they could have spent working on another assignment, the developer is in a precarious position.

The original Reddit post had numerous comments from other people working in the industry who further shared their own point of view on the matter.

A user wrote: “People have been saying this for a bit now, if AI is writing more and more of the code it will just mean more and more work. It's not there to make your life easier, it's the opposite.”

“The guy who said no piss breaks says AI will bring more piss breaks. I don’t believe the private jet class,” joked another.

Someone else asked: “Why do you think your job is "coding"? It's like saying power-tools should cut construction workers' hours by half compared to before they became widely available. I don't understand where this mentality comes from.”

AI could help to reduce drudgery in software development. But it will happen only if businesses dedicate the time to other parts of development. If software developers are working long hours despite having powerful tools at their disposal, the concern over their working lives should be about more than just their ability to write code faster.