AI Is Replacing Programmers, Not Builders

High school graduates, parents, and people in the industry keep asking the same question: Is it even still worth studying computer science? Won’t AI just replace all of it?

My answer is clear: Yes, it’s worth it. But only if you approach it the right way.

Pure Programming Will Disappear

I know this is painful for some people to hear. Myself included – I used to enjoy coding myself. It’s a craft you’re accustomed to, one you’ll miss when it’s gone. Peter Steinberger put it very aptly in a recent conversation with Lex Fridman :

“The actual art of programming, it will stay there, but it’s gonna be like knitting. People do that because they like it, not because it makes any sense.”

And he adds something that resonates with me as well:

“I read this article about someone saying it’s okay to mourn our craft. And a part of me very strongly resonates with that.”

It’s okay to mourn it. But the world is changing. And this is as certain as death and taxes: What the world will no longer need in the future are programmers who simply execute work packages and produce code. People who process tickets and crank out lines of code – that role will be taken over by AI. Not tomorrow, not the day after, but the direction is clear and unstoppable.

What Won’t Disappear: The Building

What absolutely won’t disappear, though, is the building.

The world needs people who build stuff. Digital stuff. Apps, agents, systems, architectures. And for that, you need people who:

• understand the system – not just a programming language, but how the parts work together
• can think in architectures – the big-picture perspective, not just the individual module
• understand code, even if they no longer write it themselves
• can delegate – to agents and to other people
• can manage and operate products – from deployment to customer conversations
• understand business cases – how B2B ecosystems work, what makes economic sense

Steinberger puts it succinctly:

“I don’t think you’re just a programmer. That’s a very limiting view of your craft. You are still a builder.”

And the demand for builders isn’t disappearing – quite the opposite. In large corporations, 30% of the IT workforce will retire over the next five years. Modernization programs are running everywhere. Legacy systems need to be replaced, architectures rethought, existing environments transformed. And no – AI won’t absorb a significant portion of that. You need people who understand the big picture and take ownership.

What I Would Advise Someone Today

If a high school graduate asked me today whether they should study computer science, I’d say: Yes. But pay attention to where and how.

Don’t go somewhere that only teaches you how to restart a server with Unix commands in the terminal. Go somewhere you learn the big picture – the underlying principles, the systematic thinking, the concepts. Object orientation not as a slide deck, but as a way of thinking. Distributed systems not as exam material, but as a real challenge.

And then go work at a company where you pick up the business counterpart to all of that. How do business models work? How do customers think? How do you build something that’s not just technically elegant but also economically viable?

A Degree Alone Isn’t Enough

But – and I say this from personal experience – a degree alone isn’t enough. That was already true in my time.

You have to build stuff on the side.

Take on side jobs. Do freelance work. Build things, maybe just out of curiosity, even if it doesn’t earn you any money. Feed your curiosity.

That’s how I did it back then: I built content management systems for e-gaming. I developed websites for the university hospital. I threw myself into it. And only through doing that did I, for example, truly understand why you program in an object-oriented way – something you only read about on the professor’s slides but never internalize. It’s only when you know the pain you bring upon yourself by not applying certain paradigms that you’ve truly grasped it.

The Builder Has a Future

The builder – the person who builds things, who takes responsibility, who sees the whole picture – will always have a place. A well-paid place. Whether employed or self-employed.

Steinberger describes the feeling that remains:

“While I don’t write the code, I very much feel like I’m in the driver’s seat and I am writing the code. It’s just… the activity of a programmer is different.”

The activity is changing. The identity doesn’t have to. You’re not a programmer becoming obsolete. You’re a builder getting new tools.

So: Study computer science. Understand the fundamentals. Build things. Understand business. Learn to delegate to agents the way you would to junior developers. And never stop being curious.

The builder era is just getting started.