Is AI going to take my Job?

As a guy who works in tech, this is a question I hear pretty frequently these days and in this article I'm going to give my hot take on the question for what its worth.

No AI is not going to take my job, in fact AI is making my job better, let me explain.

Who am I?

I taught myself to code 15 years ago, have worked in tech ever since, and today serve as a Software Architect at a cybersecurity firm. I'd like to think I've picked up a thing or two along the way, but as always, exercise your own discernment and do your own research.

What This Actually Looks Like For a Client

Talk is cheap, so let me get concrete with one real example. When I built out the initial version of a scheduling site for a client, BottMobileAuto, that's the kind of project that, coding it entirely by hand the old-fashioned way, would have realistically taken me 20-30 hours just to get an initial working version in front of the client. With AI coding tools in the mix, it looked more like: a couple hours talking with the client to nail down what they actually needed, a couple hours translating that scope into clear technical instructions for the AI, and a few more hours reviewing and iterating on the code it produced. All in, we're talking a handful of hours instead of a few dozen, and the client had something real to look at and react to almost immediately.

That same project needed online payments. I've worked with Stripe (a common payment processing platform) years ago, but I'm by no means fluent in how their tools work today. I handed the AI sandbox keys (a safe testing environment, not connected to real money) and it built out the entire payment workflow. I didn't just take its word for it though, I reviewed the actual code it wrote, and I tested real sandbox transactions to confirm everything worked the way it should before it ever got deployed for the client.

That's really the pattern behind all of this: the AI moves fast, but I'm still the one setting the scope, checking the logic, and verifying that what got built actually does what it's supposed to do, securely and correctly. For a client, that means faster turnaround and lower cost to get to a working product, without cutting corners on the review and quality checks that actually protect your business.

Quick Plain-English Detour

Before I go further, a couple quick notes for anyone who doesn't live in tech land day to day. "AI coding tools" (things like Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok) are AI assistants that can write and edit computer code when you describe what you want in plain English. They're not robots replacing developers, they're more like extremely fast, extremely knowledgeable assistants that still need a human directing them, checking their work, and making the real decisions. That distinction matters a lot for the rest of this article, so keep it in mind. I often compare AI coding tools to the calculator for mathematicians.

Which AI coding tools am I talking about?

I have no bias in the race to the top model, currently I feel Claude is the leading horse, but that rotates every few months. One issue in Google Cloud (basically the servers and infrastructure that host a website behind the scenes) managed to stump Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok and I threw my hands in the air declaring yeah my job is safe.

The smartest toddler you've ever met

Often times this is how I describe AI coding to others. They are extremely good at specific isolated tasks, but can fall short in bigger picture thinking. For example recently Claude Code built me a beautiful landing page and login/sign up screens, except it made the sign up form require being logged in already, or in other words you had to already have an account to create one. Even a junior dev wouldn't make that mistake. Yes the forms and pages were beautiful, but it got lost in comprehending how the front-end screens connected to the back-end logic that actually runs the account system. I could share numerous stories like this, but I won't because I know they won't age well, their creators keep improving them, but again in my experience they can get the code 95% right, but when it comes to coding, that last 5% can bring the whole site down or leave a massive security vulnerability.

An army of junior devs

This is how I view the AI coding tools. I handle the design, and delegate specific instructions blending plain English design language with technical nerd speak to my army of junior devs (aka current favorite AI coding tool) and they crank out insane amounts of code. Almost always it requires my review, some feedback, and some iteration, but even given how much time that takes me, my army and I are producing tremendously more than I ever could have on my own. To drive this point home, this army is allowing me to in parallel work on:

• This site (both the client portal, time, expense, articles, etc)
• A scheduling site for a client, BottMobileAuto
• A finance portfolio tracker Nexfi
• In talks with potentially building a website/app bundle for church
• Other "friendly chats" advising friends and their business

Oh and all of that is on top of my 40hr/week day job, bible studies, woman I love, family, friends, church, range time, etc. Without my army of junior devs it simply would not be possible to be taking on all this. I am so thankful AI helps me help others.

Shifting Focus

What this is doing is shifting the focus of my job in ways I greatly appreciate. I am spending less time writing grunt work level code, and more time focusing on the high level design, feature set, and making sure everything actually holds together and stays secure. I'm able to design bigger and do more complex features and projects because I'm not spending so much time turning ideas into code line by line. As a Software Architect I absolutely love this, however I do see how a front end engineer (a developer who specializes in the visual, user-facing part of a website or app) or similar roles might be a bit worried by this, but the question posed was about my job not every dev job.

What This Means For You

If you're not a tech person, here's the short version. AI coding tools are real, they're useful, and they let people like me move faster, especially on the first 90-95% of building something. But someone still needs to know what "good" looks like, catch the mistakes AI quietly makes, and make sure security and business logic are actually correct, that last stretch is where projects succeed or fail. So whether you're wondering about your own job, or you're a business owner wondering whether AI means you can just skip hiring someone who knows what they're doing, the answer is the same: AI is a powerful tool in skilled hands, not a replacement for the judgment, oversight, and experience that make sure the end result is something you can actually trust and build your business on.

Where This Leaves You

If you've got an idea for a site, app, or feature and you're wondering whether AI-assisted development could get you there faster and cheaper without sacrificing quality, that's exactly the kind of conversation I enjoy having. Reach out, tell me what you're trying to build, and we can talk through what a realistic scope, timeline, and process would look like, starting with a conversation, not a contract.