Hiring

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Will Junior Developers Survive the AI Era?
Engineering-LeadershipIndustry-Insights
Feb 13, 2026
8 minutes

Will Junior Developers Survive the AI Era?

Every few months, I see another hot take claiming that junior developer roles are dead. AI can write code faster than entry-level developers, the argument goes, so why would companies hire someone who’s slower and less reliable than Copilot?

It’s a scary narrative if you’re early in your career. It’s also wrong—but not entirely wrong, which makes it worth examining carefully.

Junior developers aren’t becoming obsolete. But the path into the profession is changing, and both new developers and the leaders who hire them need to understand how.