If anyone was still doubting it, the Anthropic leak should make it clear that AI will not replace developers. However, some skills will be much less valuable than others. The value of memorising HTML syntax has steadily fallen since 2001 but with AI it has fallen to new depths. What’s even more valuable than before are things such as intent, system understanding and taste.
In my opinion, these are the top three hard skills for developer in the Age of AI.
- Git, already a must-know for human-human collaboration will only grow even more useful for human-agent collaboration.
- Interrogating agents: once agentic developers have become the bottom bar of software quality, your ability to overcome their shortcomings will be the space where you can deliver unique value to your users (and be useful to your team).
- Self-expression, the ability to know what you want, why you want that and to make the case for any audience, whether it is carbon-based or silicon-based.