AI expertise up, coding skills down, as developer job market shifts

The software development job market is experiencing a significant shift as artificial intelligence expertise surpasses traditional coding skills in demand. Salesforce‘s recent announcement that 2025 will be its first year without adding software engineers, coupled with Indeed‘s report of developer job postings hitting a four-year low, signals a fundamental restructuring of technical talent priorities. This transition reflects how AI’s accelerating adoption is reshaping the skills hierarchy in technology careers, pushing developers to evolve their expertise or risk career stagnation.

The big picture: Traditional software development roles are seeing decreased demand while AI, machine learning, and cybersecurity positions dominate the tech job market.

• Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff‘s February announcement that the company won’t add software engineers in 2025—for the first time in its 25-year history—exemplifies this industry-wide shift.
• Job postings for software developers on Indeed reached their lowest point in nearly four years as of July 2024.

Behind the numbers: Multiple factors are driving this employment market transformation beyond just the AI revolution.

• The post-pandemic tech hiring slowdown, following the 2020-2022 boom, has disproportionately affected traditional development roles.
• Economic uncertainty has caused many companies to pause general software development while continuing to invest in specialized AI skills.

Reading between the lines: The developer job market isn’t collapsing—it’s evolving into a more specialized and AI-centric landscape.

• Companies still need software development skills, but increasingly desire them paired with expertise in machine learning, data engineering, or cybersecurity.
• Purely coding-focused roles face greater competition and potentially lower compensation than positions requiring a broader technical skill set.

What developers are doing: Software engineers are adapting to the changing market by expanding their expertise into adjacent technical domains.

• Many developers are complementing their coding abilities with AI knowledge, data science credentials, or cybersecurity certifications.
• Career transitions into roles like machine learning engineer, AI product manager, or data engineer represent paths forward for traditional programmers.

The long view: This employment shift reflects a natural evolution in technology careers rather than an existential threat to software development.

• Programming fundamentals remain valuable, but they’re increasingly becoming baseline skills rather than differentiators in the job market.
• The integration of AI capabilities into development workflows is creating new hybrid roles that blend traditional coding with machine learning expertise.