Should You Still Learn to Code in 2026?

I’m a Senior Applied Scientist at Amazon where I build production machine learning systems. And I don’t write code anymore.

AI writes virtually every line I commit.

So here’s the uncomfortable question I keep getting, and honestly, the question I’ve been asking myself: if someone like me doesn’t actually write code anymore… is it too late for you to learn?

Last year if you’d asked me I would have been totally confident that AI coding tools just aren’t there yet, and I was skeptical if they’d ever be. Today, I think people who are skeptical about AI being able to code at a professional level just aren’t using the tools right. In the right hands, AI assistants like Claude Code are WAY past just being auto-complete and now able to do complex, multi-step workflows that literally span days.

But this is just my experience. So I dug into the data.

And at first? It looks pretty bleak.

What the Data Say

Let’s start with the job market. The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that “computer programmer” roles dropped about 27% in just two years, and they project another 6% decline through 2034. Those jobs straight up…