Either you want to be or already are a web developer, in a time when advances in A.I. and technology are no longer surprising but expected; so, is the whole web-dev job outlook threatened? Must we learn different skills? What exactly should we expect from here?
For starters, let’s look at the facts:
Technology will always progress, going beyond our imagination.
The internet is -by itself- a whole world, referring to Merriam-Webster’s definition of world as, “an indefinite multitude or a great quantity or distance”.
Worlds contain abundance, opportunity, change, progression, in addition to destruction.
Internet infrastructure still relies on cables in the ground.
A.I. relies on massive, always-available dedicated infrastructure and hardware.
Infrastructure and hardware are among the slowest to change / advance compared to other aspects of the internet.
Humans are pretty interesting creatures. Ever watch Tik-Toks or YouTube videos?
We could worry that this career will be consumed and replaced by AI bots, leaving our career choices slim, but as a Gen-Z growing up with AOL, Dial-up, Windows ’97, Home Basic, Vista… Windows 11, iPod Touches and all the societal / political changes, I can say that (with Moore’s law taken into consideration) the web development career field is ever-lasting. Here is my prospect / prediction.
Job descriptions continue to change. By change, I mean shrink. It shrinks because there is so much more responsibility given to what used to be lesser-complicated aspects, such as styling and designing. Now, as businesses grow, they hire more people to manage individual sectors. Take front-end development as an example. The front-end used to be known as HTML & CSS, with perhaps a few people on a team in the same department. Now, it’s segmented off on a branch of it’s own, divided into groups for user interface(how websites look), user experience(how websites feel), graphic design(best colors to use for specific emotion effects), and SEO (search engine optimization, how sites are ranked and presented to users through browsers) all based on psychology, cookies/session data for use with customized styles based off returning users, targeted content adapted to user’s individual collected data.
Several people are doing a job that used to take one person to do. Some companies are outsourcing parts of their web development to companies dedicated to web development because it’s so complicated.
Here’s the point. Humans will always have an advantage over technology, in that we are spiritual, intrinsic beings with astonishing capabilities beyond what we currently understand. The same technology that may intimidate us is the mere outcome of humans in our element/focus mode, bringing into reality the works of our imagination. Having direct and frequent experience with AI, and having used it for several profile picture avatars, I can tell you that my mortal brain can think and create in ways AI cannot.
