From Developer to Product Director

The emergence of LLMs as software‑development assistants has revolutionized the way code is written and is transforming the role of the software engineer as we know it. The Software Developer/Engineer role as we know it is in full metamorphosis, with its eventual shape resembling that of a Product Director.

First sign: snippet generation and correction

The first indication of the transformation came when language models began to be used to create and correct small blocks of code (snippets). This targeted assistance allowed developers to avoid repetitive tasks, to fix and create code much faster, and demonstrated the potential of AI to automate code writing.

Integration into IDEs

The next stage was the arrival of plugins that integrate into IDEs (Integrated Development Environments) such as GitHub Copilot for Visual Studio Code, IntelliJ, or PyCharm. Sharing the editor, these assistants began to offer real‑time contextual suggestions, further reducing the friction between idea and implementation while productivity increased thanks to shorter development times.

AI‑native IDEs

With the rise of IDEs that embed artificial intelligence natively (for example, Cursor or Windsor)—meaning the AI understands the project end to end and generates code—the transformation becomes evident and irreversible.

These three signs illustrate the evolution. Because a large portion of code is—and will continue to be—generated by LLMs, the key will be knowing what to ask for and verifying that the software does what was requested. The focus will shift to user experience and how users interact with the product.

Concrete example: creating an authentication module—an activity that previously required hundreds of lines and manual configuration—can now be reduced to a well‑crafted prompt that explains the desired flow, defines user roles, and specifies security requirements.

Adaptation

It will therefore be necessary to become deeply involved in understanding the business, since day‑to‑day autonomy will come from creating complete product features rather than developing isolated functional requirements. Developers will need to integrate diverse technologies and acquire knowledge at an even faster pace than is currently required.

Thus, we will move from writing thousands of lines of code to writing prompts so that language models generate those thousands of lines. As a result, new competencies must be acquired—or strengthened:

• Business vision and metrics – understanding how the product impacts company objectives.
• User experience (UX) design – prioritizing user interaction and satisfaction.
• Stakeholder communication – translating business needs into specifications understandable to the models.
• Accelerated learning – quickly integrating emerging technologies in the ecosystem.

Only time will reveal the final shape of the role, but it is clear that software will soon become a commodity, and it will therefore be crucial to accompany the transformation from now on in order not to be left behind.