• This post originally appeared in the BI Tech Memo newsletter.
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This is the space where I usually try an AI tool. This week, though, I'm featuring an experience shared by a Tech Memo reader who got in touch after last week's installment about AI coding services such as Replit, Cursor, and Bolt.new.

This person worked at Google for more than two decades, so they know their software! They recently tried out Replit, following Google CEO Sundar Pichai saying he's been messing around with this tool.

"Like Sundar, I've also tried Replit to test out a cat purring app I had (lol). I poked around on some other options, but I liked Replit because it took the query and really built an app for you (even on the free test version). So based on a query alone and answering some questions (e.g., do you want people to be able to log in and save their cat?), you had an app. And it would work! You could launch it if you were really interested and happy with it.

"The limitations came with fine-tuning the app from there, as it seemed to get confused (and use up your credits) if you asked it for changes, e.g., change how the cat looked. It also was a pretty rough product; ultimately, if you wanted more than a proof of concept, you'd probably want to delve into the software code and change things yourself versus relying on queries.

"Over time, I think they'll fine-tune these things and I love how it makes it easy to prototype ideas. It really lowers the upfront cost of testing ideas."

Thank you, dear reader, for getting in touch. I have also been messing around with an AI coding tool. I chose Bolt.new, partly because I recently met the cofounder of the startup behind this service, Stackblitz's Eric Simons (another Tech Memo reader, btw). Next week, I'll share some thoughts about Bolt. I've been building something with my daughter Tessa and we can't wait to show you!

• Magnus Grimeland, the CEO and founder of the VC firm Antler, said demand for software engineers will only grow.
• AI will continue to make errors, and only software engineers will optimize this technology.
• AI will also lead to further specialization among software engineers, he said.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Magnus Grimeland, the CEO and founder of Antler, a global early-stage venture capital firm. He also cofounded Zalora, a fashion e-commerce platform in Asia. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

There have been a lot of headlines about software engineering being replaced by AI, based on the assumption that anyone can just go in and code any program with natural language. It's actually much more likely that the need and demand for great software engineers will grow in the next couple of decades.

Even the best software engineers today make errors. AI models will also continue to make errors, at least for a very long time, and the only ones who will optimize this technology are software engineers.

At least over the next 20 to 30 years, what you will see is the best software engineers getting a tremendous amount of leverage to be more efficient and deliver better products faster. Software engineers will work in a different way than before.

In the not-too-distant future, we also need to adapt to an entirely new computer ecosystem, and the ones who are going to be able to do that are software engineers. We've already started investing in a few companies that are preparing for that.

Further specialization

AI will also lead to further specialization.

Today, software engineers are grouped a bit more generally. Some work on hardware, some on different types of software languages, and some are great mobile developers.

The complexity of the type of roles that you'll see for software engineers will increase significantly because the way this is being implemented in different industries will require specialized goals.

You'll also see fewer general engineers and more people who are really good at one specific thing.

Software engineers will work closer with businesses. AI will enable business leaders to work better with engineering departments because they can tinker with the early versions of the products themselves.

This should lead to more efficiency in terms of how the technical and less technical parts of the business work together, and that should actually give software engineering an even more important role in the business.

A new era of learning

When we were building Zalora and now at Antler, some of the best engineers we hired in Southeast Asia were self-taught.

They didn't have computer science degrees from universities. They read up on the internet, tinkered, and built their own programs.

AI has made it better than ever to teach people — as long as they have the right drive and basic intrinsics to learn how to become a great software engineer.

You'll see many more self-help people who are just as good as people who've done a full university degree.