Boris Cherny, the creator of Claude Code at Anthropic, has predicted that the title "software engineer" will begin to disappear by 2026 as artificial intelligence fully automates coding for most people. In an interview with Y Combinator’s "Lightcone" podcast, published Tuesday, Cherny said that by the end of the year, AI will have advanced to the point where writing code is no longer a specialized skill but a widely accessible function. “I think today coding is practically solved for me, and I think it’ll be the case for everyone, regardless of domain,” Cherny said. “I think we’re going to start to see the title ‘software engineer’ go away. It might just become a vestigial term, like ‘typist’ or ‘clerk.’ Instead, people will be called builders, product managers, or something else entirely.” Cherny emphasized that the role of engineers will evolve beyond writing code. As AI agents handle the actual programming, engineers will increasingly focus on higher-level tasks such as defining requirements, writing specifications, and engaging directly with users to shape product direction. He pointed to current trends within his own team, where engineers are already functioning as generalists. “On our team, every single role now codes — product managers, designers, engineering managers, even finance people,” he said. “We’re seeing a shift where coding is no longer a gatekeeping skill.” This transformation is already underway. Founders and tech leaders have reported that their entire codebases are now being generated by AI agents — a shift that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago. Jesal Gadhia, a startup founder, told Business Insider that all the code for his company was written by AI agents, a capability that was not feasible in 2024. While AI has dramatically increased productivity, some developers warn of unintended consequences. A software engineer recently shared with Business Insider that while AI has made them more efficient, it has also led to burnout and what he described as “AI fatigue” — a growing sense of mental exhaustion from constantly reviewing, refining, and managing AI-generated code. Even experts in the field are noticing the impact. Andrej Karpathy, a founding member of OpenAI and former head of AI at Tesla, said in January that his ability to manually code has started to “atrophy” due to overreliance on AI tools. As AI continues to advance, the nature of software development is shifting from writing code to guiding and shaping intelligent systems — a change that could redefine the future of technology work.