Why AI hasn’t replaced software engineers, and won’t
Evidence rejects the narrative that AI capabilities will cause mass software-engineering layoffs.
“If writing code isn’t the bottleneck, what is?”
Narayanan and Kapoor argue that AI hasn't caused mass software-engineering unemployment—no NY WARN Act filing in its first year checked the AI box—because coding speed isn't the real bottleneck. The true bottlenecks are deciding what to build, verifying and being accountable for output, and the deep human understanding of codebase and business that resists automation. It matters because it pushes back on prevailing AI job-loss narratives across all professions.