If You’re Developing Software, You Should Be Watching AI Closely

If you’re in the business of developing software for mass or niche markets (an ISV), monitoring the developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) should be at the top of your to-do list. Understanding how developing software and AI tie together will be critical to your success.

AI enables computers and machines to do things we once thought impossible, like learn, hear, make decisions, and even talk back to us. This is a game-changer in the software development world, as it completely changes the paradigm of engineering.

Once upon a time, a developer would code a series of rules for the program to follow. Now, with the advent of AI, they can use machine learning that will make decisions based on the data it collects, and the machine will then work to continuously improve itself. This is a very basic explanation, but the implications of this new reality are far reaching. It destroys how we perceive, define, and execute software development.

Google research engineer, Pete Warden, predicts on his blog that within 10 years, most software jobs won’t involve programming.

A great example of this already happening is with Google’s Alexa. They allow developers to integrate Alexa into any software that requires a voice interface. Alexa can already unlock your doors when prompted, and tell you how much you owe on your power bill. When combined with other software, the results could be mind-blowing.

Here are 3 ways that AI will continue to change the software development industry and process.

Decision-making

AI is subtle when trying to decide which features should be prioritized, and which ones need to take a back seat — especially in the MVP stage of development. But, with an AI program that knew your business factors and had past experience with other projects, this task suddenly becomes simple. The computer would have the ability to analyze the past activity and current business landscape, and be able to provide a fact-based suggestion on the best course of action.

Estimation Accuracy

Let’s be honest — software development projects often go over budget, and past deadline. Because of the complexity involved, it’s sometimes extremely difficult to accurately predict how much a project will cost, and how much time it will take. But, with an AI tool that is filled with past project data, there is suddenly a way to use all those variables and previous results to create a solid estimate of time and resources required for even the most complex projects.

Every Developer Deserves an Assistant

Intelligent Programming Assistants like Kite or Codota will continue to be developed, and their skills and abilities will continue to increase. Smart assistants already help developers be more efficient through the provision of timely support and documentation for things like debugging and coding. But, they don’t stop there. These assistants can now pick-up on common errors and flag them for a solution, based on their past experiences. Experts predict that in the future, these assistants will have the ability to actually deploy the fixes they find, without any human intervention whatsoever.

So if you’re in the software developing space, hold on to your hat. It looks like big things are coming your way, and you just might get to spend less time writing code and more time teaching your machines.