The "problem" (if it is one) is the same as we had with previous craftsmen being replaced by mass-production. Since it doesn't "have" to be done by hand, it can be done quickly and cookie-cutter.

And the dirty secret is that 90% of "stuff" is crud already (literally CRUD or just a tool for a task, no thought needed).

Everyone loves those little apps that used to be so common on the Mac, lovingly created and amazingly excellent at some small task; but the vast majority of people use whatever tool barely works and move on with their life. AI is incredibly enabling there; even if all you ever use it for is automating away spreadsheets.

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adamddev1 a day ago | parent [-]

It seems like almost every argument defending the slide into agentic development is either:

1. This is just like the move to [X deterministic technology]. (False analogy)

2. You think it was good before? Who cares if it's a bit worse. (Corruption mentality doomerism)

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horsawlarway a day ago | parent | next [-]

I mean... I don't think ai development is appropriate for all uses, but I do personally get quite a lot of value out of being able to just get a quick and entirely custom solution to a specific pain point.

Ex - I ripped the home launcher out of my Nvidia shields and replaced it with an entirely ai generated one that has child lock controls and doesn't show any ads.

The "human produced" product was already a piece of enshittified crap. The llm version didn't need to be a masterpiece, it just needed to more clearly match my needs and respect my time. The current ai launcher is notably faster, ad free, and much easier to use. It's not worse.

All the other options for child controls that I could buy we're much more complicated, and wanted subscription fees (30+/y).

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So it's a balancing act. Pretending there's no value here at all is also incredibly disingenuous.

Should all professionals be doing ai only development? Obviously not.

Can this still be a useful and meaningful tool? Obviously yes.

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cyanydeez a day ago | parent | prev [-]

I think thats cause you're talking to software engineering.

There's lot of places where the cost of some simple program to do X is just to site-specific that it's cost per unit of automation is just too high.

I assume a lot of laid of software developers will find those jobs and AI will fills those voids.

Once those voids are filled, they'll need to justify their value prop, and SaaS are natural targets of high niche and low code responsibilities.

	▲	bombcar a day ago \| parent [-]
		If you (generic) haven't yet used AI to script away some annoyances that you know you could do but never got around to, you really need to try. It's an eye-opener for sure.