Photo by Raph Gatti (Credit : https://www.artnet.com/artists/raph-gatti/pablo-picasso-with-camera-tLRpdBrQO_9yy2rYPnDmAA2)
Recently, I watched a documentary about the life of Picasso, from early childhood until his passing. In the series, there were several references to innovation and creativity when it came to Picasso’s time periods: The Blue Period (1901–1904), the Rose Period (1905–1907), the African-influenced Period (1908–1909), and Cubism (1909–1919).
By the time photography became widespread and mainstream — especially in portraiture and realism during the late 19th century — Picasso was growing up and beginning his artistic journey.
This was the time when photography shattered traditional notions of art. The camera could now capture life in astonishing detail, with a realism no brush could match. For painters like Picasso, this sparked an identity crisis:
“Why paint the visible, when the camera can already show it better?”
But rather than giving up, artists reinvented their purpose. They leaned into what photography couldn’t offer — emotion, distortion, abstraction, concept. From this disruption, modern art movements like Cubism, Expressionism, and Surrealism were born. Art survived by transcending realism.
Now, fast-forward to today. Software engineering is going through its Picasso moment — but this time, it’s AI that’s the camera.
One obvious outcome of this rapid development is AI agents can now write, test, and even architect code.
And there is debate here and there that “Why hand-craft every function when an AI can generate it instantly?”
Does it look similar? This shift mirrors what happened in painting during the 19th century, but does this mean AI will soon replace software engineers? The answer is no.
Rather than AI replacing software engineers entirely, we’ll see software engineers who effectively utilize AI outperform those who don’t.
It is not a matter of AI replacing software engineers, but Software engineers who are utilising AI to be more productive will replace other who don’t.
Also there will be a shift in the responsibility and the definition of success:
- The job is no longer just about creation, but curation.
- Success depends less on typing speed, and more on prompt quality, system thinking, and critical evaluation.
The Takeaway:
From my point of view, just like painting evolved after photography, software engineering must now evolve:
- From code writers to AI orchestrators
- From builders to designers of intent
- From solo creators to collaborators with intelligent agents
The tools have changed — but the creative edge, the human judgment, and the architectural thinking remain irreplaceable.
Leave a Reply