Developers aren't discounting the tech industry — but only if companies value humans over AI

Technical.ly

3 days ago

Tech workers are reckoning with years of declining market power and a fundamental shift in what it takes to build a sustainable career.
That was front and center at PyCon US 2025 last week, the country's largest annual gathering of Python developers. The Pittsburgh conference took place against a backdrop of layoffs, AI disruption and growing uncertainty about the future of tech work.
Attendees, who ranged from software developers to data scientists, said new AI tools are changing the tech industry. While some questioned the stability of tech work moving forward, others were optimistic it would lead to greater demand for developers, not less.
'If you want to create a full-fledged product with deeply thought features, it is something that needs a human touch,' Abhishek Amin, a DC-based software engineer who's been using Python for over a decade, told Technical.ly. 'So, programming is not going to go anywhere, and it is as important as it has always been.'
Even as AI tools become more capable of generating code, many developers said human expertise remains essential. Otherwise, companies risk exposing themselves to a host of vulnerabilities, according to Fahad Baig, a senior data architect from Phoenix, Arizona.
'I think there's less and less code actually written by people nowadays, but being able to understand and explain the code that's being generated is still extremely valuable,' Baig said.
To compete in today's job market, knowing how to code still matters — but it's no longer the golden ticket that some say it used to be. Tech professionals at the conference said just knowing programming languages won't guarantee employment.
'Knowing the basics will always be important, I think,' said University of Missouri computer science student Alissa Chimienti, who's preparing to enter the job market, 'but you definitely need to strive above that. The job market is so over-flooded with people who know how to code that you really have to set yourself apart.'
In Pittsburgh, programming languages, like SQL, Python or Java are some of the top skills in local job postings, though the number of postings has been declining in recent months.
For many, learning Python still seems like a path to a successful, sometimes high-paying career, even if that's in industries other than tech. It was the fifth most in-demand skill in Pittsburgh in May 2025, according to Lightcast data, and in some regions, companies are willing to pay top dollar for it.
'Where I came from, Python is the highest paid [skill], because when you learn Python, you can enter different fields,' said Freilla Mae Espinola, a software engineer from the Philippines and executive director of the Python Asia Organization.
Some attendees questioned whether programming skills will continue to lead to the kind of stable, high-paying careers they once did, so they're job hunting with a different ethos in mind.
One software developer, Lan Phan, who recently moved to Pittsburgh, said she's more focused on finding work that's creatively fulfilling than simply secure. Within the current disrupted tech landscape, there's an 'opportunity for new creative companies to come about and take those skills that people have to do new things,' Phan.
The 'enshittification' theory
To better explain the current instability in the tech industry, Cory Doctorow, a science fiction author, activist and journalist who delivered the keynote address, offered a framework for understanding the broader forces at play. He spoke about 'enshittification,' his term for the decline of digital platforms as they prioritize profits over value.
The idea is a 'tragedy in three acts,' Doctorow said. First, a platform is good to its users by creating real value. Then, the platform abuses those users by making things better for its business customers. And finally, the platform abuses its business customers in an attempt to harvest as much profit as it can.
Doctorow theorizes that four forces can resist this process: competition, regulation, interoperability and labor. For many years, tech workers were that fourth and final constraint that held the line, but mass tech layoffs and increased competition for limited job positions have changed that.
Last year, the industry saw more than 150,000 job cuts across nearly 550 companies. So far this year, more than 22,000 workers have been laid off, and according to attendees, some developers were even let go en route to the conference.
'Tech workers' power never came from solidarity; it came from scarcity,' Doctorow said.
Doctorow urged developers not to give up their sense of agency.
'For every 'enshitifying' code there is 'disenshittifying' code waiting to be written,' Doctorow said. 'Every 10-foot wall invites the 11-foot code ladder.'
As tech workers' power wanes, some look to unions
Efforts to unionize in the tech industry have made headlines in recent years, but it's relatively new territory, according to keynote speaker Doctorow.
'Tech workers, we are a strange kind of workforce,' Doctorow said during his speech. 'We have historically been very powerful, able to command very high wages and respect, but we did it without joining unions. Union density in tech is abysmal. It is almost undetectable.'
Since 2019, some established unions have launched campaigns to organize workers in the tech industry. Years of activism have culminated in some successful organizing, like Google employees forming the Alphabet Workers Union or the New York Times tech workers organizing under a new unit of the Times-Guild of New York.
It's mostly the success stories that stand out, though. Everett Rommel, a data engineer from New Jersey, said he tried to organize in a previous position as a data analyst, but when that effort wasn't recognized by management, he decided to leave for a different job.
'We are losing our market power,' Rommel said, 'and unions are being pitched as a way to sort of gain back a little bit of market power.'
Others argue that the fast-paced nature of the tech industry clashes with traditional union structures, where slower decision-making could hinder innovation. Still, Rommel said, organizing, or finding a new job if it doesn't work out, might be harder today, especially under the current administration.
If tech workers are serious about building collective power though, Rommel said, there needs to be a push for sectoral bargaining. That would mean collective bargaining across the entire industry, not just individual workplaces.
The tech workforce in some sense already does this. Open source communities and collaborative platforms already show how developers can come together across organizational lines, said Baig, the data architect from Arizona, but turning that spirit into labor power won't be easy.
'I don't know if you have that much power individually,' Baig said, 'but, collectively, I think there is a path where you can 'deshitify' the internet.'