# Will AI replace software engineers?

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/q/will-ai-replace-software-engineers/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

[All questions](https://realalpha.app/q/)

Question

All 7 moments we cut that answer this say the job changes. Jad Naous said on a16z Podcast (Oct 16, 2026) that engineers use agents to plan and implement work, then review and consolidate what they produce. Yann LeCun said on Unsupervised Learning (May 15, 2026) that engineers will move toward architecture and deciding what to build while LLMs handle programming.

## Where they stand

- The job changes 7
  - Jad Naous ×2
  - Guillermo Rauch ×2
  - Uday Kiran Medisetty ×2
  - Yann LeCun

## The job changes 7

1. a16z Podcast · Oct 16, 2026 · 7 min
   **[AI cut a complex data-lake project from six months to ten days](https://realalpha.app/s/ai-cut-a-complex-data-lake-project-from-six-months-to-ten/)**
   > “And that took maybe about 10 days. In previous days, that would have taken maybe about six months for a single person.”
   [Jad Naous](https://realalpha.app/builders/jad-naous/) CEO, Grepr [24:04](https://realalpha.app/v/blkIGLlZePg/?t=1444)
2. a16z Podcast · Oct 16, 2026 · 4 min
   **[Experienced engineers get more leverage from coding agents](https://realalpha.app/s/experienced-engineers-get-more-leverage-from-coding-agents/)**
   > “the more complexity that your brain can handle, the more you can break down the tasks and kind of assign them”
   [Jad Naous](https://realalpha.app/builders/jad-naous/) CEO, Grepr [13:34](https://realalpha.app/v/blkIGLlZePg/?t=814)
3. Sourcery · Oct 16, 2026 · 3 min
   **[Engineers should manage agents, not blindly ship their code](https://realalpha.app/s/engineers-should-manage-agents-not-blindly-ship-their-code/)**
   > “so I think the role that most people are now taking with this coding agency is that of an engineering manager.”
   [Guillermo Rauch](https://realalpha.app/builders/guillermo-rauch/) Founder & CEO, Vercel [13:04](https://realalpha.app/v/WuorvLfAFmA/?t=784)
4. Sourcery · Oct 16, 2026 · 4 min
   **[Leaders must explain when their product vision has changed](https://realalpha.app/s/leaders-must-explain-when-their-product-vision-has-changed/)**
   > “it takes courage to do that because you have to sit in front of your company and you have to tell them with a straight face and conviction”
   [Guillermo Rauch](https://realalpha.app/builders/guillermo-rauch/) Founder & CEO, Vercel [1:08:50](https://realalpha.app/v/WuorvLfAFmA/?t=4130)
5. The Pragmatic Engineer · Oct 14, 2026 · 6 min
   **[Uber still requires human review on every PR](https://realalpha.app/s/uber-still-requires-human-review-on-every-pr/)**
   > “we want to err always on the safer side because the cost of an incident for Uber is like really high.”
   [Uday Kiran Medisetty](https://realalpha.app/people/uday-kiran-medisetty/) Distinguished Engineer, Uber [59:26](https://realalpha.app/v/MDUYSMJmi8A/?t=3566)
6. The Pragmatic Engineer · Oct 14, 2026 · 8 min
   **[Uber is shifting from diff counts to feature velocity](https://realalpha.app/s/uber-is-shifting-from-diff-counts-to-feature-velocity/)**
   > “we are internally talking about not necessarily just diff velocity but feature velocity”
   [Uday Kiran Medisetty](https://realalpha.app/people/uday-kiran-medisetty/) Distinguished Engineer, Uber [1:24:06](https://realalpha.app/v/MDUYSMJmi8A/?t=5046)
7. Unsupervised Learning · May 15, 2026 · 2 min
   **[LLMs excel only where language is the substrate of reasoning](https://realalpha.app/s/llms-excel-only-where-language-is-the-substrate-of-reasoning/)**
   > “LLMs are good programmers they're not software architects they're not computer scientists right but they can program for us”
   [Yann LeCun](https://realalpha.app/builders/yann-lecun/) Former Chief AI Scientist, Meta [37:26](https://realalpha.app/v/ngBraLDqzdI/?t=2246)

Each moment is a few minutes of a long interview, cut by Real Alpha and filed under how it answers by a model that read its claim and quote. Open a moment for its full transcript. Last moment added Oct 20, 2026.