Meta‘s chief technology officer Andrew “Boz” Bosworth predicts artificial intelligence will create a sharp divide in the software engineering profession, with those who master AI tools commanding premium positions while others fall into lower-tier roles focused on data gathering and labeling tasks.Speaking during an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on Instagram, Bosworth said AI will lead to “a stronger tiering of capability” between developers who embrace the technology and those who don’t adapt quickly enough.“The engineers who master the tools to the point that they can’t themselves be replaced by the tools command a premium,” Andrew Bosworth explained. “And the people who don’t master the tools end up working below the tool layer, in data gathering, labelling tasks; they end up in tasks that for whatever reason the machine isn’t good at and aren’t high-leverage.”

AI tools mirror internet’s transformative impact on coding

Andrew Bosworth compared AI’s potential benefits to how the internet revolutionized software development, enabling developers to Google compiler errors and access better API documentation through online communities.In the near term, he believes AI “makes our lives easier in the same way the internet made our lives easier.” Looking further ahead, he envisions AI providing engineers with unprecedented “leverage” that will drive significant “complexity and productivity” improvements.

Andrew Bosworth says future of software companies will be small teams, massive scale

The Meta executive predicts AI will enable dramatically leaner organisations, forecasting “companies with a couple of employees and billions of users.” This aligns with CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of AI creating “midlevel engineers” capable of writing code and helping founders build with “very small, talent-dense teams.”Zuckerberg has championed an “efficiency” push at Meta since 2022, resulting in tens of thousands of layoffs. The company recently announced plans to allow job candidates to use AI in coding interviews, signalling its commitment to integrating artificial intelligence throughout its engineering processes.Despite acknowledging uncertainty about exact outcomes, Bosworth emphasised that AI will help the software industry grow rather than shrink it.