Coding careers remain valuable

Touch any prototype and everyone instantly realizes how far their mental model was from reality.

That moment of clarity, when abstract ideas collide with concrete implementation, remains one of the most powerful feelings in product development.

As we are getting closer to mid-2025, this fundamental truth starts to show a subtle misinformation in “AI will replace coders”. The narrative that suggests that coding careers are somewhat fruitless has proven more persistent and I would say potentially harmful than feared waves of mis-information and deep fakes that dominated discussions in 2024.

This parallel struck me while listening to panel discussion at NAMS25 today.

While the AI coding tools have evolved, as in they excel at generating code, they have not started bridging the super critical gap between what users say they want and what they actually need.

When someone types “Build me an app that does THIS”, a somewhat vague request, it starts a journey towards a valuable product. And that journey always comes with human judgment at multiple decision points.

The most valuable skills still remain uniquely human: breaking apart problems, systems thinking and the ability to translate between technical possibilities and actual human needs.

This is what makes AI tools so powerful in the right hands. They amplify capabilities that already exist, they don’t replace them.

For those making career decisions: Don’t shy away from development because AI’s rise. Instead focus on developing skills AI can’t replicate. Learn the skills to collaborate effectively with the tools and (this is crucial) maintain the human abilities that give tech its purpose.

Touching that first prototype and having the ability to recognize that this is not working that is the core skill we developers need.