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AddyOsmani.com - The Next Two Years of Software Engineering

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The software industry sits at a strange inflection point. AI coding has evolved from autocomplete on steroids to agents that can autonomously execute development tasks. The economic boom that fueled tech’s hiring spree has given way to an efficiency mandate: companies now often favor profitability over growth, experienced hires over fresh graduates, and smaller teams armed with better tools. Meanwhile, a new generation of developers is entering the workforce with a different calculus: pragmatic about career stability, skeptical of hustle culture, and raised on AI assistance from day one. What happens next is genuinely uncertain. Below are five critical questions that may shape software engineering through 2026, with two contrasting scenarios for each. These aren’t really predictions, but lenses for preparation. The goal is a clear roadmap for handling what comes next, grounded in current data and tempered by the healthy skepticism this community is known for. The bottom line: Junior de

The software industry sits at a strange inflection point. AI coding has evolved from autocomplete on steroids to agents that can autonomously execute development tasks. The economic boom that fueled tech’s hiring spree has given way to an efficiency mandate: companies now often favor profitability over growth, experienced hires over fresh graduates, and smaller teams armed with better tools. Meanwhile, a new generation of developers is entering the workforce with a different calculus: pragmatic about career stability, skeptical of hustle culture, and raised on AI assistance from day one. What

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