Prediction: Companies will regret replacing intro-level workers with AI.

Advanced and high-level engineers will always be in-demand, at the very least to maintain and oversee current systems.

Today, many companies -- especially tech companies -- are choosing to replace their intro-level workers with AI.

This is a bad decision in the long-run and reminds me of a serious criticism in the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes of 2023.

The criticism was called the "ladder problem". The idea is that junior-level jobs (writer assistants, junior screenwriters, production assistants) are essential stepping stones for individuals to gain firsthand experience in the industry. These roles expose newcomers to the procedures, typical tasks and hierarchy, and decision-making in the industry.

Eliminating these roles strongly reduces the opportunity for people to grow and learn in the industry through mentorship, observation, networking, and shadowing. Thus, in the long run, the industry will notice a shortage of competent "Advanced" workers (Senior Developers, Senior Data Scientists). The population of intro workers were never given the opportunity to learn and grow properly, so many "advanced" engineers of the next generation will have lower levels of competence than "advanced" engineers of the current generation.

(If the above scenario does occur in real life in the next 5-20 years, the tech industry will not acknowledge that eliminating intro and junior jobs was a major factor in the growing incompetence of senior workers. They will blame it on the failing education system, or the laziness of the next generation, or immigrants, or anything else).

But, no single company can solve this problem on their own, and so no single company has the incentive to continue to hire low-level engineers at this time.

This is why we need to unionize.