Ask HN: AI has changed my job for the worse

In the span of a few months, my job has completely changed. Most of the code in my team is now written by agents. And most of the focus of my team is to integrate agents in our products.

I'm not interested in the products we're supposed to build, and I don't like the way we're building them. Code quality has suddenly became irrelevant, and you have to keep up with everybody who ship twice as much code as before.

At the same time, there's more pressure on SWEs to deliver as layoffs are looming. I think leadership really believes they'll be able to save a lot by ultimately getting rid of all of us.

I'm not sure what to do at that stage but I'm pretty miserable. It's crazy that this occurred so fast.

22 points | by yodsanklai 15 hours ago

14 comments

  • wreath 3 hours ago
    I feel the same way. Im on the job market (though still employed) and i can tell you my core skills have degraded since using LLMs last year or so where technical (non leetcode!) interviews are now more challenging to me since i forgot how to make all these small decisions (eg should this be a private class property or public).

    I decided to just disable codepilot and keep my skills sharp i know we will be called back to clean up the mess. Reminiscent of offshoring in the 2000s

  • y0eswddl 14 hours ago
    This seems to be par for the field rn. I would say learn the tools for now, do your best to ship code you like, release as many f*cks as you can about what you're building - especially if the product and majority of products belong to someone else, and start putting feelers out for something better to hopefully come along.

    It sucks SO much rn, but it seems the majority option is to grin and bear it for the time being and pray to whatever gods you believe in that we get back to something sane sooner than later

  • sharts 9 hours ago
    Why aren’t we replacing the executives who make the poor business decisions which lead to layoffs with AI agents?
    [-]
    • achairapart 2 hours ago
      They will. This optimization will bring a future made of one-man companies who will keep busy vibe coding and asking business decisions to AI agents. The answers will be poor as ever, so on that side nothing will change, I guess.
  • propablythrown 4 hours ago
    They won't get rid of all, but many of you will be let go for sure.
    [-]
    • hshdhdhehd 3 hours ago
      Absolutely. Keep putting shit into production and watch the company sink.
  • sexyman48 15 hours ago
    You put a manual bookkeeper out of a job. What comes around goes around?
    [-]
    • JustExAWS 12 hours ago
      Manual bookkeepers were put out of a job in the 1980s with VisiCalc
    • y0eswddl 14 hours ago
      How. How is a software engineer building saas applications in 2025 replacing a manual bookkeeper?
      [-]
      • journal 12 hours ago
        manual bookkeeper? a quickbooks user? or pen and paper? either way, it's not like any of you are manually entering debits and credits regularly into a journal like they have done forever before computers, databases, and software. we're not losing jobs because of ai but because we're in the middle of switching gas tanks. just a low energy production is causing everyone to panic and blame it on ai. i have so much work i wish i had the money to hire people. they're all just waiting for things to get cheaper. it's not like they don't have enough money to survive indefinitely, if they can make 90mil in two years vs 10mil now, the math is simple, just wait.
      • add-sub-mul-div 9 hours ago
        It's just the typical midwit argument that one kind of automation is the same as any other. Best to ignore it.
  • dannicou 10 hours ago
    It’s understandable to feel this way — the shift happened incredibly fast, and a lot of teams weren’t given time to adapt. Maybe the real challenge is figuring out how to redefine what meaningful work looks like in this new environment.
  • journal 12 hours ago
    be the best at using llm and do talks how to use them get noticed and stay hired.
    [-]
    • MonaroVXR 11 hours ago
      This is only if people believe you
  • keiferski 5 hours ago
    Not to be flippant, but - be glad you’re not a writer, because you might not have a job at all.
    [-]
    • hshdhdhehd 3 hours ago
      There are more writing jobs. Aka prompt engineers.
      [-]
      • keiferski 3 hours ago
        No, not really. There is no such position, writing is just more becoming a part of a marketer’s job.
  • lschueller 15 hours ago
    I feel your worries, but sooner or later sde roles will adjust to the new requirements and tools. If a companies business model is at risk by an evolving technology or innovation, it wasn't very good after all. Nonetheless, the skills are still essential to good products imho
  • dudewhocodes 13 hours ago
    Everyone in the field seems to be in deep FOMO driven by the other guys also being in a state of FOMO. This creates chaos, delusion and a stressful environment where things are irrational.

    I understand your thoughts, we have to keep pushing through this and saner heads will prevail.

  • yincong0822 7 hours ago
    find a project on github and contribute it!
  • bitbasher 9 hours ago
    This too shall pass.
  • paulcole 13 hours ago
    There’s tons of jobs in the world. Go get a different one if you’re that miserable?

    You’ll probably find something to hate about that new job, too.

  • banjwoorri 9 hours ago
    [dead]