Will developers become marketers/salespeople and marketers become developers?

Yesterday, I had a call with one software dev. His words: "I want to shift to marketing and sales because, with the AI, the developer job is substitutable and it becomes financially less attractive." Once my friends said: "Every marketer will become a developer." Maybe it works reversely too. What do you think about this whole thing? Do you plan to shift to another profession because of AI?

Replies

André J
I think anyone that thinks this way needs to take a break from polarising truths that are evangelised in SoMe. There is too much inertia for things to be replaced overnight, and within that inertia, there is incredible opportunity, this is the most exciting time ever to to be a dev, then people feel like this?. Everything will take longer than people think. Especially what SoMe makes you think. SoMe is designed to shock you, to get attention. It has no incentive to be truthful, only to get more attention. Seek awareness, avoid false fear. Time to build 🚀
Business Marketing with Nika
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@sentry_co yeah, there are opportunities – I do not believe that when most of our work can be done quickly with the help of AI, we have "free time" – we will come up with another type of work or whatever problem where we can be included. I only paraphrased the words of the guy I had a call with yesterday.
André J
@busmark_w_nika I don't think we will work soon, there was a place for fake work before, because of inertia, but will will soon live in a frictionless world.. But before that. Trillions will be up for grabs. Goldrush mode. You don't "complain" that you can't find any gold in your current river. You move to the next untapped river and start digging with better shovels. Just for instance. think of all the slow inertia companies in the world, that could move at 100x efficiency if someone installed AI smarts into their systems. And this is about every traditional business out there. And we are in day 1. and there are 10-20k more days left. I think it's the easiest time to succeed ever. A weekend hack can be a 1m ARR in 6 months. etc.
D. Ferencha
While AI has the potential to impact the developer job market, it's unlikely to completely replace human developers. Instead, it will likely lead to a shift in the types of tasks developers perform and the skills they need to succeed. By embracing AI as a tool and focusing on higher-level skills, developers can continue to thrive in the age of automation.
Setup Dubai Business
The lines between roles in the tech and marketing industries are blurring, with developers increasingly learning marketing skills and marketers gaining some technical knowledge. Developers may begin to take on marketing and sales tasks, using their technical expertise to better communicate product benefits and improve customer engagement. Likewise, marketers might learn basic development skills to better understand the products they promote and create more effective campaigns. For entrepreneurs looking to start a business, new company setup in Dubai offers excellent opportunities. Dubai’s dynamic business environment and strategic location make it a prime destination for new companies to thrive.
Tony Tong
Eventually, there will be no roles as AI and trends ongoing for centuries continue to commoditize human skills : ) before that happens, we'll see adjacent roles merge, developers picking up marketing or marketers learning dev work are just part of this It's not about switching fields but evolving with the changes ai brings
Business Marketing with Nika
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@tonyabracadabra + I think new upcoming professions will emerge (those, who are not yet there)
Tony Tong
@busmark_w_nika yea I think it is already happening, we are seeing design engineer role as the top trend this year, and soon we will see technical marketer (marketers that know how to code so they don’t rely on developers to build funky micro tools for marketing campaigns, or set up automation workflows that typically requires some coding, likely with AI’s capabilities but that’s a good start)
Tony Tong
@busmark_w_nika that’s a great start! I’ve heard many non-technical folks have had a fantastic experience with bolt.new since it takes away the hassle of deploying your code, saving you from struggling with that tricky last mile
Varun C Bhagath
In every organization I have worked, right from the Finance guy to HR and every non-Marketing executive had their two cents worth of unsolicited knowledge shared about 'How to Market' and 'What activities had to be done'. The reality is everyone markets themselves in some form or the other. Marketing requires 'Empathy' - thinking from being in the consumers' shoes. A developer having this soft skill as a superpower (SSaaS) along with the right communication skills can indeed crossover to marketing. But marketer to developer transition is a chasm too difficult to cross as it requires acquisition of hard skills of coding (despite AI being there)
Business Marketing with Nika
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@varun_bhagath I feel that – I have very limited knowledge of coding and everytime I ask something chat GPT, it takes me longer to understand what happens there.
TJ Larkin
Launching soon!
Nah, don't bail on dev work just yet! AI isn't really replacing devs. Been seeing tons of devs actually making more because they combine coding skills with AI automation.
Nicholas Ryan Carter
I think devs and marketers will still have distinct roles, but the lines are blurring. Devs need more marketing savvy to promote their products, and marketers need to understand the tech to market it effectively. Both can leverage AI tools to augment their work. But the core skills will remain separate - devs build the products, marketers get them in front of users. The most successful will be those who can collaborate across disciplines while leveraging the latest AI and no-code tools to move faster. It's an exciting time with tons of opportunity on both sides! 🚀
Matthew Aaron Clarke
Things are definitely shifting, but you're right that there's still a lot of opportunity in the overlap between dev and marketing. Devs who understand marketing principles can build better products, and marketers who know some code can automate tasks and analyze data more effectively. The key is to focus on the exciting potential of combining skills rather than worrying about total replacement. Use the tools available to level up your abilities and create more value. It's an awesome time to build!
Marketers now can build UI prototypes with chat-oriented programming...but they still need devs to move beyond the ideation phase and sort out back-end challenges like data structures and security.
Tera Bitcoins
I think that we will always need developers, at least, to create the Ai tools. About marketing and sales, Ai is also replacing a lot of tasks in that area... If, at any point, I decide to shift to another profession it would be because of my own will, not Ai! Thanks for this discussion Nika :)
Business Marketing with Nika
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@terabitcoins Thank you for the POV :) I also want to shift but because of building the skills :)
Pragadeesh Natarajan
Beyond automating tasks, AI excels at helping people transition to roles they genuinely enjoy more than their current ones. This often happens because their heart was never fully invested in their previous role.
Business Marketing with Nika
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minimalist phone: creating folders
@pragadeesh_natarajan Possibly yes – I want to use AI for doing things I am not so good at but with AI it will be easier for me.
Pragadeesh Natarajan
@busmark_w_nika That's a great way to look at it! AI can really help expand your horizons – you can take on tasks that might have felt out of reach before.