• Junior and mid-career developers feel unsupported by their employers
• 58% say simply ‘using AI’ has become a key metric at work
• Half have shifted from using AI to managing AI agents

More than half (54%) of software developers are now feeling anxious about their long-term career prospects not because AI has replaced them, but because the technology’s simply changed their roles that much that they feel they need a whole different set of skills, new research has claimed.

Three in five developers now say employers expect them to accomplish more with fewer resources because they have access to AI, with over half (55%) reporting increased pressure to work faster.

This has led to 61% stressing that software development has changed too quickly – a third (31%) think it’s negatively impacted their career and nearly half (46%) think it’s made the job less attractive.

AI has fundamentally changed what a ‘software developer’ is

Software development has changed from writing code to managing AI agents and monitoring output, the Adaptavist report found. This is true of half (51%) of the survey’s respondents, who feel they now ‘manage’ AI instead of just ‘use’ it.

But many workers now feel that using AI alone has become a metric for their employers – one in two admit to using AI primarily to show their managers that they’re using it, not because it’s actually helping. Many use it more frequently than it’s needed simply to appease managers, and over one in three (37%) worry they could lose their job if they refuse to adopt AI.

Rather than using AI adoption as a metric, developers would prefer employers to measure success on the basis of software quality, productivity, delivery speed and cost savings. Just 22% believe usage levels are a valid measure of success, and yet 58% say it’s become a key metric at work.

AI is impacting developers’ career progression

Adaptavist found that mid-career developers were most likely to feel AI is negatively impacting their progression – workers who haven’t yet climbed the ladder to more senior roles, which could be more protected against AI’s impacts on coding.

But junior developers are also worried about their futures before they even step on the career ladder. Two in five (43%) believe AI has reduced their learning opportunities.

“Organisations need to help developers grow alongside the technology, ensuring they have the skillset and support to use AI effectively throughout their careers,” Adaptavist DevOps Lead Matt Saunders wrote.

Looking ahead, the report calls for organizations to reconsider the metrics they use to determine effective AI adoption, and to support human developer roles amid the transformation to ensure that they don’t lose the talent that they’ll still need in the future.