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Anthropic's Claude Code creator predicts software engineering title could disappear by 2026
Cherny argued that engineers will increasingly act as generalists
The creator of Anthropic’s AI coding agent Claude Code has predicted that the job title “software engineer” could begin to fade as artificial intelligence takes over much of the coding process.
Boris Cherny, who built Claude Code at Anthropic, said on Y Combinator’s Lightcone podcast that 2026 will bring “insane” advances in AI capabilities.
According to Cherny, coding is already “practically solved” for him, and he expects that to soon be true across domains.
“I think we’re going to start to see the title ‘software engineer’ go away,” he said, suggesting roles may shift toward broader titles such as “builder” or product-focused positions.
Cherny argued that engineers will increasingly act as generalists — writing product specifications, speaking with users, and reviewing AI-generated code rather than manually producing it.
At Anthropic, he said, employees across functions, including product managers and designers, now regularly write code.
Other tech leaders have echoed similar views. Andrej Karpathy, a founding member of OpenAI and former head of AI at Tesla, said earlier this year that his ability to code manually has begun to “atrophy” due to reliance on AI tools.
While AI agents like Claude are boosting productivity, some engineers warn of unintended consequences, including overwork and “AI fatigue,” as expectations rise alongside automation.