Learning to Code in the AI Age

One might think, if AIs are so good at writing code, why bother putting in the effort to learn how to program? My answer to that question is that in 2026, learning how to code is as useful as ever. AI tools allow you to develop more complex software than before, but that complexity is relative to what you could achieve without them: if you don't know how to code, you won't be able to run the code created by them, if you know just a little bit of programming, you'll be able to do a little bit more than before, and if you're a professional developer you'll be able to do much more now.

The occasional programmer

In disciplines such as biology, physics, and history, there are many tasks that can be easily solved by writing small programs. For the occasional programmer, such as an expert in any technical field that could benefit from having small pieces of code that solve particular problems, AI tools are a huge boon. Now, experts will be able to write much more code much faster; AI means more code, not less, but if you don't know what programming is about, you won't be able to take advantage of all this power.

What to program. Part of the art of programming is knowing which tasks are possible. If you have no clue about what coding is and what it can do for you, you won't think about asking the AI what code to write for you. A big part of the skill in building software is understanding what's possible and what isn't, and having at least a rough idea of how those things can be accomplished. Without a foundational knowledge of what a program is capable of, an expert cannot effectively prompt an AI to solve a specific task.

How to use it. Imagine that I'm a friend of yours and I've already written the code for you and you have received it in your inbox, now what are you going to do with it? If you want to run the code .you need to know quite a bit about the craft of setting up the environment and running the code.

Does it really work. Great, you have managed to run it and you have a result, is this output correct? How can you know? Remember, AIs hallucinate and people make mistakes, so will you be able to review the code and check that it is doing what it is supposed to do?

Is it reliable. Six months or one year has passed, you have prepared a report or a paper with the results and the reviews and comments are in. They ask you to modify the inputs slightly and to rerun the program to check a couple of details. Was your code reliable? Did you take into account that libraries, compilers and interpreters change? Do you even know what a library or an interpreter is and why these changes could make your code brittle?? This is a huge problem, it is not enough for the code to work, we need the program to run reliably and this is not a trivial task and, no, AIs by default don't create reliable projects unless you ask them to.

The professional programmer

Do professional programmers code in the age of AI? Definitely yes. Many or most of them are using AI tools, and some of us even use them to write code, but all professional programmers are well aware of the limitations of these excellent tools.

They are capable of creating moderately complex software that at least runs. So one might think of them as efficient junior developers capable of recalling a huge amount of minutiae. Although they might write thousands of lines very fast, unless one directs them very tightly, they tend to produce low-quality code that is difficult to maintain. AI models, focused on implementing a specific prompt, often ignore wider application contexts, leading to "code slop", code that compiles and runs but is verbose, brittle, and flawed.

They lack the architectural judgment required for large-scale system design, they are not very good at organizing big projects. The professional can now learn faster and even get some code written by the AI, but organizing a somewhat complex software project requires a deep understanding developed through years of experience..

They are also not that good at evaluating the different constraints that any software project has and deciding how to strike a balance for your particular current needs. For that you still need a lot of experience. One might say that highly skilled programmers are needed now more than ever.

For fun

Beyond the job market and scientific research, there is an intrinsic value to programming that AI cannot replicate: the joy of creation. For many programming is a hobby that offers the satisfaction of solving difficult problems and the empowerment of building something that did not previously exist

Programming is fun for many people, they do it in their spare time because they like it. You get the satisfaction of solving puzzles; when you manage to crack them, it empowers you. Most of all, you can think of something that you'd like to exist in the world and you just go and build it. Being capable of creating anything that you fancy is a great satisfaction in the software world, and the only thing you need is a modest computer and dedication.