Industrializing Software: AI as the catalyst for a fourth industrial revolution.

Industrializing Software
AI as the catalyst for a fourth industrial revolution.

I'm beginning to see AI as just another industrializing force. This time, in the software industry. A new machine that will quickly drive a fast moving transformation from a craftsmen led, gilded age of skill and artistry in the software industry .. into an industrialized era where software is just the output of a machine. Give a set of inputs into a machine and out will come customized software. The skills will then go into the machine creation .. maintenance of the machines, and the ability to operate one to get the desired outputs. Hand development will become the quaint artistic hobby taken up by retired machinists, like blacksmithing or woodworking is for software developers and a few professional artisans.

Most of us with an understanding of the software construction built from working with manual tools (coding) will have little value to the designers of the machinery (AI). Their machine outputs simply need to mimic what we currently do by hand .. not replicate it. If software has a similar manufacturing process to industrial goods -- becoming an industrial good -- then the system will be an industrial one. Codes, regulations, quality control engineers, architects. Engineers designing the machines, and vast numbers of machine operators churning out bespoke software made to a purpose.

Thinking back on that, I would love to have the conceit that  maybe I should find my architect and test architect hats again .. I know they are in here somewhere. However what I should really be doing is designing and building the machine that handles those processes for other machines and their outputs. I paid a lot of time to train an AI to be highly skilled in those disciplines, I might as well use it in the new world.

So... yes, I have a plan. It might even work. I could even sell you that plan, or 10% of a plan (discounts apply :)). However the pertinent question really is:

What will you be doing when you can't do this anymore?