Can't directly answer your question, since I'm not working at a company that makes any claims about hiring less human engineers because of automation.<p>But I think the central question is not how much of software development can be automated. It's rather how many engineers companies _believe_ they need.<p>Having spent some time in mid sized companies adjacent to large companies, the sheer size of teams working on relatively simple stuff can be stunning. I think companies with a lot of money have overstaffed on engineers for at least a decade now. And the thing is: It kinda works. An individual or a small team can only go so far, a good team can only grow at a certain rate. If you throw hundreds of engineers at something, they _will_ figure it out, even if you could theoretically do it with far less, by optimising for quality hires and effective ways of working. That's difficult and takes time, so if you have the money for it, you can throw more bodies at it instead. You won't get it done cheaper, probably also not better, but most likely faster.<p>The mere _idea_ that LLMs can replace human engineers kinda resets this. The base expectation is now that you can do stuff with a fraction of the work force. And the thing is: You can, you always could, before LLMs. I've been preaching this for probably 20 years now. It's just that few companies dared to attempt it, investors would scoff at it, think you're being too timid. Now they celebrate it.<p>So like many, I think any claims of replacing developers with AI are likely cost savings in disguise, presented in a way the stock market might accept more than "it's not going so well, we're reducing investments".<p>All that aside, I also find it difficult as a layperson to separate the advent of coding LLMs from other, probably more consequential effects, like economic uncertainty. When the economy is stable, companies invest. When it's unstable, they wait.