Amazon Web Services CEO suggests developers may not be coding in two years

The head of Amazon Web Services (AWS) has suggested that in the future developers may need to be required to learn different skills as they won't necessarily be coding anymore.

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According to AWS head Matt Garman, going forward 24 months or "some amount of time" the requirements for developers will have changed, with the AWS specifically saying "coding in 2025 may be different than it was as a developer in 2020." While Garman didn't specifically name the catalyst for what will change the coding landscape, the answer appears obvious - the rise of sophisticated artificial intelligence programs.

AWS has stated that Garman wasn't issuing a "warning" to developers, but the sentiment still rings true - the coding landscape will look very different over the next few years, especially considering how much it has already changed since the rise of AI-powered tools. For example, AWS has let go of hundreds of good as of April, and according to Garman the amount of time writing code for a product is going to continually reduce, and the job will be more focussed on knowing what the customer needs.

"If you go forward 24 months from now, or some amount of time - I can't exactly predict where it is - it's possible that most developers are not coding. Coding is just kind of like the language that we talk to computers. It's not necessarily the skill in and of itself," the CEO said. "The skill in and of itself is like, how do I innovate? How do I go build something that's interesting for my end users to use? Being a developer in 2025 may be different than what it was as a developer in 2020," Garman added

Notably, developers won't be completely out of a job just yet as humans still need to be around to check for any hallucinations within AI-generated code. However, who knows how long it will be before that step isn't necessary.

"Matt articulated a vision for how AWS will continue to remove undifferentiated heavy lifting from the developer experience. So that builders can focus more of their skill and energy on the most innovative work," said an AWS spokesperson