On AI, Layoffs, and the Changing Career Landscape for People in Software
It was October 2025. I was trying my best to onboard AI onto a codebase that was new for me too. Goal was to dissect some convoluted logic of pagination in a realtime chat app. AI kept on producing wrong results, with extreme confidence. In my frustration, I told my friends, there is no way this thing is taking away our jobs for at least the next two years.
In December 2025, my thoughts would take a 180 degree turn. The newer models started producing shocking results. I experienced the productivity gains and I knew, things are about to change in a very serious way.
I have been in the software industry for well over 16 years now. When I graduated in 2009, software and internet were still eating the world, and engineers were in high demand. Especially mobile engineers, with iOS SDK only being a year old. Luckily, I have ridden that wave for a good few years. It’s been the case for many. Jobs have been in abundance and not enough skilful engineers to fill them. It gave many, including myself, a chance to immigrate to western countries and make a good living.
Things are obviously changing now. Barely a week goes by without another headline of layoffs hitting the news. Waves of redundancies happening, some well over 40% in a single move. More waves are coming of course.
Amidst all of this, I see a lot of people in despair. Junior engineers, worried, trying to refresh their interview skills, preparing their CVs, getting ready to try to grab a new job for whenever the layoff axe falls on them. However, these layoffs aren’t normal. It isn’t like some company has all of a sudden found itself in a pickle, and done a one-off trimming of the workforce, with other companies ready to pick you up. This is exactly what happened during covid -- bunch of companies not able to take the pressure of the lockdowns, and big tech scooping up everyone that was let go onto the market.
“This time, it is different” -- isn’t it? When so many companies, including the big tech, are trimming down, who are you preparing your CV for?
AI is causing seismic changes. A poorly thought out response isn’t going to cut it.
Well, what are the options?
Surviving the layoff
No big company is going to shrink down to a workforce of one, with the CEO sitting behind their desk, ordering around a bunch of AI agents to take care of the mega infrastructure already in place. That might indeed happen, but not anytime soon on the shorter timescale. Existing companies are still going to need a bunch of people to oversee AI. However, the workforce required to achieve that is going to be much smaller than current numbers. I won’t be surprised if in the next couple of years, many companies shrink by 50% to 80% of their existing size. If you really want to be in the surviving batch of people, make sure you can outwork your colleagues. Show that with AI, you are not only 10x-100x better than your previous self, but also 10x-100x better than your colleagues. A race to the top, where the bottom layers keep getting chopped. Be ready for a 996 lifestyle -- grinding 12+ hours a day, with weekends thrown in as well now and then.
If you are young, have limited family responsibilities, you can probably pull this off. If you are on a visa, which many are in the tech industry, you have limited choice other than to follow this strategy.
Get a job at a different company
Here, it’s going to be a race to the bottom. With fewer job openings and so many folks being put back onto the market, you will be competing against many. If you get an offer, how much of a leverage you have in negotiating a good salary? If you have had experience with freelance contract sites on the internet (e.g. Upwork), you know what this looks like -- many applicants, each eager to get the work, willing to accept a lower price tag.
What are the alternatives?
AI is your friend. Stop fighting it. Embrace it fully.
Given my area of expertise is mainly iOS/mobile, in mid 2024 I decided to get better with building for web in order to become a well rounded full stack engineer. I ordered and started reading the books pictured below, outside my normal 9-6 schedule:
In 2026, does anyone ever need to read another book on a programming language or framework? If I can do the mobile front end, is it really needed anymore that I hire someone separate for doing the backend? Someone else for web?
AI can easily do the backend, web, mobile, all in one for you, and it is exceedingly getting better and faster at it.
The future of software careers
AI is making certain things much easier than before. Such an irony that the industry that is inventing it, CS, is one of the first it is replacing jobs in. But whilst it is replacing jobs, it isn’t going to eliminate all the problems in the world overnight. Many problems still need better solutions, and new problems are going to emerge. With AI on your side, it is ever more possible to create one-person companies to provide viable solution to a niche problem that others will be willing to pay for.
Go indie
You don’t need to raise money. You don’t need to hire a team. Find a problem you are passionate about, and employ AI as your helper. If you find a viable product market fit, you might just end up changing your life for the best compared to what any job could have ever done so for you. However, this route implies that you are willing in getting out of your ‘coding skills’ comfort zone, and eager to put much more energy and time into not just building, but designing, marketing, user research, pivoting, experimenting, data analysing, and all the roles that you would have previously expected being fulfilled by many supporting roles on your big company team.
Join a small team of people that are as passionate as you about a problem space
If you still want to stick to your core competency, and want to delegate your weaknesses, then join a smaller company/startup, with focused and niche problem space and people you enjoy working together with. That last part is going to be important -- if you are going to pursue something with passion, better do so surrounded by people that you get along well with. Otherwise, you might just as well employ that grind at a big company and stick on to your anxiety-inducing job for longer.
What am I up to?
Believing change is the only constant, here are some ways I’ve been preparing for the inevitable:
Save as much as I can: Having a financial cushion for the bad days, and having as much of it as possible, is something all of us should always aim for.
Invest wisely: I got onto the investment ladder quite late in my life (yea well with that great financial literacy I was provided since an early age -- /sarcasm), however, for the past quite a few years, I have been diligently dollar/pound cost averaging into index funds.
Limit my financial obligations: Bought a house in an inexpensive area to keep my monthly mortgage payments low. Utilising state school system for my kid instead of expensive private education. Bought a reasonable car instead of something that would make me look wealthier than I actually am.
Never forget that things can change drastically when it comes to job security: Thus I maintain a running list of ideas of potential things I can do.
It helps to have a partner who is employed — establishing a second stream of income. Luckily that’s the case for me.
Predicting future with certainty is impossible. Remember what they say about casinos; the house always wins. If house can always win by tilting the odds only so much slightly in their favour (51/49), maybe we can also win by just slightly playing the odds better in our careers?
As I try to adapt to the fast changing environment, I constantly keep on questioning my longer term outlook. For example, I am not sure anymore if my kid will need a university education. What will future job market, and preparing for it, look like in 4-5 years? Nonetheless, it doesn’t mean we drop everything and lose hope. Still have to battle things out, and be ready for quick changes when needed. Amongst many emotions that I am feeling, excitement is one — excitement that I get to break out of complacency, break out of inertia and start preparing goals again. Planning and executing new ideas can be exciting and fun.
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Thoughts shared are my personal opinions.