The estimated number of coders in India is 26 million, which is likely to reach 30-35 million in five years. As AI technologies evolve, they will automate routine coding tasks and some entry-level coding roles may evolve or diminish on account of AI.
Advanced AI tools (such as the recent arrival Devin) can take on the entire coding projects and handle them from start to finish. However, there is always a need for human intervention, oversight and creativity in software development.
At present, AI is helping coders to enhance their job performance, AI frees up coders to focus on designing architectures and solving complex problems. AI can make coders free to improve user experience.
There are tools like GitHub Copilot, Microsoft 365 Copilot and Replit. These help coders by suggesting next line of code, by correcting syntax and fixing bugs and running debugging on the top of the code. It accelerates the coding process.
AI is also used to examine the code for possible errors and make corrective suggestions (for instance Deepcode). It is as difficult to debug and correct errors as trying to find a needle in the haystack. Debuggers infused with AI can examine the code, find problems and suggest solutions.
AI also generates doc strings, adds comments, formats the code and creates unit tests. AI can prepare a blueprint of the initial version, which the coder can edit. A simple UI-UX design can also be introduced in the code.
AI cannot substitute the nuanced understanding and innovative traits of the human programmers. AI cannot understand emotions, cultural aspects and values. All these matter and have to develop in human-centric applications.
AI can facilitate code testing. It is a time-consuming task. AI can create tests for the code automatically. These tests can be run to search for the flaws.
AI can facilitate the automation of laborious processes. The use of AI could be compared to RPA: robotic process automation that revolutionized BPO business by doing call-related work. That enhanced the productivity of the employees. It made the market competitive.
In a large application, some little pieces can be automated. However, hardcore design issues or complex issues do crop up where human intervention is necessary.