This week, I built a working prototype with Lovable.

No code needed. Nice UI, working buttons, mobile friendly - all without writing any code.

When I showed it to my client, one of the devs said: “Ok, we are doomed now!” He said it jokingly, but…

The hard truth? AI is coming for all of us - designers, developers, product managers. Not a question of if, but when. And which role dies first.

Don’t close this email thinking “not another AI doom post.” I’m not here to scare you. I’m here to help you be the last person standing when AI hits our industry hard.

Let’s look at which tech role is most at risk - and what to do if it’s yours.

The Case Against Product Managers

After 7+ years in tech, I’ve watched PMs run around collecting feedback, making roadmaps, and saying “no” to feature requests.

But what if AI can do all that?

Here’s why PMs might be first to go:

AI is already doing PM work

Have you seen tools like ProductBoard and Cycle lately? They don’t just organize work - they suggest what to build next. They analyze user feedback automatically and tell you what features will have the biggest impact.

Claude and ChatGPT can write PRDs that look just like human-written ones. Feed them some user interviews and market research, and they’ll spit out a decent product spec in seconds.

PM work is mostly pattern matching

Most product decisions follow patterns:

• Users complain about X
• Analytics show drop-off at Y
• Competitors launched Z

This is perfect for AI. It’s just connecting dots and following rules.

The metrics are clear

Success for PMs is measured in numbers - conversion rates, retention, revenue. AI loves numbers and can optimize for them better than humans.

When the CEO asks “will this feature increase revenue?” an AI can run simulations based on past data and give a more reliable answer than a PM’s gut feeling.

Real talk

But real talk: A big part of a product manager’s job is stakeholder management, making sure everyone feels heard, and to translate between clients, founders, devs and designers.

I can’t see a world where AI replaces PMs.

However, It will be heavily AI assisted, where all the technical and documentation work is automated.

So PM is probably not the first one to go.

The Case Against Designers

As a designer myself, this part hurts to write. But we need to face the facts.

AI is getting scary good at visual design

Midjourney, DALL-E, and Stable Diffusion are making amazing visuals. Adobe’s Firefly can generate UI components that look like they came from a senior designer.

Tools like Galileo AI can make entire app screens from simple prompts. And they’re getting better every month.

Design patterns are… patterns

Let’s be honest: 90% of what we design follows patterns. Login screens, dashboards, settings pages - there are only so many ways to design these things.

Please, never sit your ass in front of a blank Figma file and try to reinvent the signup flow. Users know exactly how to sign up. They know where to look for the “forgot password” link.

AI knows these patterns too. And it can apply them perfectly every time.

User testing is being automated

Tools like Maze and UserTesting are adding AI features that can analyze user behavior without a designer watching hours of recordings.

Soon, AI will tell you exactly where users get confused and suggest design changes to fix it.

Real talk

The most at-risk designers are the ones who just make things look pretty. If all you do is visual design and basic UI work, AI is coming for your job fast.

But designers who understand business goals, can talk to users, and translate complex problems into simple solutions? They’re safer.

Design thinking still needs a human touch. For now.

The Case Against Developers

My dev friends hate when I talk about this. But after my Lovable demo, they can’t deny it anymore.

Coding is being automated fast

GitHub Copilot writes 40% of code in files where it’s enabled. And that’s just the beginning.

Tools like Replit Ghostwriter can write entire functions from comments. New tools like Devin and Claude Code can build whole applications from simple descriptions.

Even my Lovable prototype shows that non-devs can now build things that used to need “real coding.”

Frontend is getting easier

Most frontend work is becoming drag-and-drop. Webflow, Framer, Bubble, and now AI-powered tools are making it possible for designers like me to build working websites and apps.

The days of hand-coding HTML/CSS are ending for most projects.

Backend is next

Sure, backend seems safer now. Database design, API architecture, and security are still mostly human work.

But look at what’s happening with tools like Supabase, Firebase, and AWS Amplify. They’re automated backend services that need very little custom code.

Once AI can handle security edge cases and complex data models, backend devs will feel the pressure too.

Real talk

The average developer spends hours on Stack Overflow looking for solutions to problems that have been solved thousands of times before.

AI doesn’t need to search - it knows most common solutions already.

Junior and mid-level devs who mostly implement standard features are most at risk. The ones who just turn designs into code will be replaced first.

But developers who can architect complex systems, understand business needs, and solve novel technical problems? They’ll stick around longer.

The question is: how many of those roles does a company really need?

So, who will die first?

After looking at all three:

I think in the next 2-5 years, it will hit designers the hardest. Only those who can really understand the user and build interfaces that excite will stay. Just making pretty software is already not enough anymore, but will be done fully by AI soon.

However, understanding the user, and finding new ways to solve their problems is something I can only see an experienced, humane designer can do.

PMs are safe for me. Maybe the role itself will shift, and devs will do more and more PM work, but you can’t really automate the human component of the job.

Now, looking at devs. Oh man. Sorry to all my dev friends but.

It will be suuuuuuper hard to replace devs, and our technology is not there yet, but it will. And then PMs and designers can just code frontend, backend, whatever.

This is the only role where no direct customer/user contact is required, which means it doesn’t really require a human. That’s why I think the basic Frontend, backend or Full-Stack Dev will go.

However, machine learning and computer vision will be more and more important, and people will also move towards quantum computing, so there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

To conclude:

• Devs will die out, but it will take some time
• Designers will stay, but only super senior roles
• PMs will stay, but might shift their role (ex-devs will become PMs).

Adapt or Die

I’ve been pretty direct in this newsletter. Some roles are going to disappear. It’s not a question of if, but when.

And honestly, we’re all at risk in some way.

But this isn’t about fear. It’s about opportunity.

Every technology revolution has eliminated jobs, but also created new ones. The printing press put scribes out of work. The industrial revolution replaced craftsmen. The computer made file clerks obsolete.

Yet here we are, still working, still creating.

The difference now is how fast things are changing. We don’t have decades to adapt—we have years, maybe months.

So what should you do right now?

1. Use AI, don’t fight it. The people who embrace these tools will outperform those who don’t.
2. Focus on what makes you human. Empathy, creativity, ethical judgment, and connecting with other humans are still our advantage.
3. Never stop learning. The skills that keep you employed today might not tomorrow.

I started this newsletter with a story about how I built a prototype that made my dev friends nervous. But the truth is, I’m nervous too.

We’re all in this together. Let’s help each other evolve instead of competing for the last few jobs that look like the ones we have today.

Please Please Please, reply and let me know what YOU think. I’d love to be proven wrong!

Stay valuable, Nik