AI is changing your .NET job

Your .NET job is changing. In the next few years, the role of a .NET developer is set to look quite different from how it looks today.

What's changing for .NET developers

The headline change is less coding, since AI will do most of the actual writing of code. As a result, a .NET developer is likely to spend more time making architectural decisions instead. You'll also need clear, well structured prompts to get AI to produce quality code, and there'll be a lot more quality assurance work involved, reviewing what AI produces rather than writing all of it yourself.

But it's about to get harder before it gets easier.

Why AI is already outpacing developers

AI can code much quicker than humans, and this isn't a theoretical claim. We built an AI prototype for .NET and C# developers in just two days. Before AI, that would normally have taken two to three weeks.

We've seen the same thing with our own website redesign. AI contributed to around 60% of the code, and the whole project took a month. Without AI, that would normally have taken two to three months.

As companies lean further into AI, there's likely to be fewer .NET developer roles available, simply because companies won't need as many people. Humans need paid time off and sick pay, and can only work around 8 to 10 hours across a five day week. AI has none of those restrictions, and companies will save money as a result over time.

This points towards a tougher job market. Fewer .NET developer roles, but more applicants competing for them. This pattern has played out before. When companies moved online, it led to the closure of in-store branches and job losses for the people who worked in them. Some companies adopt new technology faster than others, but the direction of travel tends to be the same, and it's already happening in the IT world.

A search for .NET developer roles on IT Jobs Watch shows that, aside from the core .NET developer role itself, which has increased year on year, every other variant of the role has decreased. A search for AI roles on the same site shows the opposite trend, with most AI related roles increasing year on year. The job market is clearly shifting towards AI.

There's still time

We recently ran a LinkedIn poll asking developers whether they think AI will replace their job. Only 6% said they'd already lost their job because of AI. 13% think they'll lose it within the next 2 years, and 26% think it'll happen within 3 to 5 years.

That result feels about right. Mass job cuts for .NET developers within the next 3 years look unlikely, mainly because AI simply isn't good enough yet for the decisions that matter most. AI still gets things wrong in practice. When we used it recently, it suggested a fix for a background task issue that had nothing to do with the actual problem. For us, It's not something we can trust to review pull requests, and certainly not something we want automating deployments to production.

There's also a skills gap. Many teams have only been given an AI subscription, with no structure, rules, or context around how to use it well, and that alone makes mass adoption slower than it might otherwise be.

Going forward, developers who take steps to learn AI properly are likely to thrive, while those who sit back or assume it won't affect them are more likely to lose out. From the same LinkedIn poll, 53% of developers think AI won't take their job. Just because your company isn't using AI seriously yet, or has only handed out a subscription with no context, doesn't mean AI won't eventually replace the work you do. AI can already code faster than humans, and companies will catch up over time.

What developers will need to know in the future

You'll still need to know .NET and C#. But there's likely to be more emphasis on showing off your AI skills too. If you go to a job interview in the future and get a take-home task, it's likely to involve AI in some way. Companies want high quality work produced at the cheapest cost, in the shortest amount of time, and AI is going to play a big role in that.

Other opportunities for developers

It's not all bad news. New job roles are likely to be created too. We saw this happen before, when companies moving online effectively created the role of web developer. If you use ASP.NET Core today, you are a web developer.

Developers already know how to build software, and that's a real opportunity. You can use AI to build software in a fraction of the time it would normally take, which means you can build your own product and start generating revenue from it. That could mean no more traditional 9 to 5 job, provided you can market it properly.

A challenge for .NET developers

.NET developers are traditionally bad at marketing themselves. We get a lot of messages on LinkedIn from developers who've recently lost their job and are looking for a new role. Take one look at their LinkedIn profile, though, and you'll often see they've barely posted, or filled out their profile. If you don't show any evidence of your skills, why should anyone trust you to do the job properly?

So here's a challenge. Learn one aspect of AI, whether that's creating an agent or building a skill, and then create a social media post about your findings. This could be a LinkedIn post, a Reddit post, or a YouTube video.

Once you've done this, email your evidence to website@roundthecode.com. We'll showcase the best ones in a future article.

Watch the video

Watch the video where we go through why the .NET developer role is changing, what the data and our LinkedIn poll actually show, and what you can do about it.