Is web dev dead?

[u/Unhappy_Finger_6545]

I'm in my second year of college, and I started learning web dev a few weeks ago. But since AI can code a website within seconds I wonder if the job I'm preparing for will even exist in the next 3-5 years?

I know that knowing html and css wasn't going to get me a job anyways and I'm not worried about that I'm worried about the job availability in this field in general, even backend and stuff.

Maybe AI is not good at it right now but it'll definitely get better in the next 5 years, will the jobs disappear then?

Should I learn something else instead of web dev, from a purely monetary perspective?

[u/MissinqLink]

No it’s just soulless

[u/Logical-Idea-1708 → u/MissinqLink]

Any part of the CRUD app is soulless

[u/Soft-Marionberry-853 → u/Logical-Idea-1708]

I respect people that can do it, but yeah doing CRUD webapp work was killing me. Each night I would go to sleep thinking "Thats it, this is my career now until I retire and then Im going to die" Im working as a dev now at a place now without a webapp in site.

[u/Blinkinlincoln → u/Soft-Marionberry-853]

I see, in sight. What you did there. Good insight. 

[u/dmazzoni]

Nobody has a crystal ball and can predict the future.

But I think a better way to think about it is that it’s a tool, an accelerator. Rather than thinking of it as replacing developers, think of it as enabling developers to get more done in less time. There’s still a need for a human, they just do less manual labor.

It’s similar to power tools. Power tools didn’t eliminate the need for construction workers, they just made them more efficient. And now that they’re more efficient we can build more ambitious things.

Same here. We can build more interesting software with AI and there’s lots of demand for that.

[u/Unhappy_Finger_6545 → u/dmazzoni]

That's a good analogy. I've also read that it would help the senior Devs but what about the junior ones? Will AI replace them? Or will their role change as well? Sorry if I sound confused , but I'm really confused. Thanks

[u/dmazzoni → u/Unhappy_Finger_6545]

The role is definitely changing, but there's still a need for junior devs.

The hardest part is just that there's so much competition now.

[u/whitebaron_98 → u/Unhappy_Finger_6545]

in the short term, juniors will be very challenged. every non technical staff is currently trying their hands at AI apps and quite some bosses think that's good enough. So the proper way of thinking is: Can they do proper requirements engineering, algorithms and will that software be very consistent? The answer to that is: NO. so that's your entry point for later, you need to get good at fixing stuff that was botched from the initial inception and 99% done by a genAI framework. A friend of mine who is good at fixing that kind of stuff already has upped his prices by 200%, hired 2 people and still got plenty of work because AI Craze in itself is not really a good business decision. You still need to know what you really need and there's plenty of code/decisions AI will only make for you if you prompt it like an architect.

The fun part about it: AI is still rather new, there's really only so many seniors in this field. So a junior can get good at it just as well as a senior, which is an opportunity. Just need to put in the hours and always remember the basics. You dont want excess fat on your applications just because AI can do it in an instant.

[Do you want to add some more juice to this explanation to make it more approachable? / s ]

[u/whitebaron_98]

AI can code a webpage within seconds, and it will be very lifeless, lack the features you really want and do some crazy shit you did not expect it to do. It will have all the modern looks and a proper stack. But thats just the starting point. It will propose all the fancy stuff from version marker to online counters, but the final question is... Do you really need this? And is the default light themed round corners design what you really wanted? With the same font like everyone else because it decided thats what's industry standard?

Whats important is to know what your customer wants and to bring that into production. Anyone can have a 1,2,go page ready in minutes. Most people that do so fail at fulfilling the requirements, sometimes not even the most basic ones.

Last I've seen? Event planner for a social club. It could not send mail notifications but had all the fancy online counters version markers user profiles etc. Just you would never know there's something new. A+ fail.

[u/neon_beacon_sky]

Web dev jobs will exist in five years because businesses need humans to validate AI output and handle liability. Focus on learning system architecture and debugging skills since AI generates code that still requires verification and integration