--- title: Why Companies Are Quietly Rehiring Software Engineers... description: The popular narrative that companies fired developers, replaced them with AI, and are now rehiring them is largely a myth — the documented cases (Klarna, IBM)... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/why-companies-are-quietly-rehiring-software-engineers--sqnboluwg twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Why Companies Are Quietly Rehiring Software Engineers... | daily.dev og:description: The popular narrative that companies fired developers, replaced them with AI, and are now rehiring them is largely a myth — the documented cases (Klarna, IBM)... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/why-companies-are-quietly-rehiring-software-engineers--sqnboluwg og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/sQNBolUwg.png og:image:alt: Why Companies Are Quietly Rehiring Software Engineers... og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Why Companies Are Quietly Rehiring Software Engineers... **[Continuous Delivery](https://daily.dev/sources/continuousdelivery)** · 15 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary The popular narrative that companies fired developers, replaced them with AI, and are now rehiring them is largely a myth — the documented cases (Klarna, IBM) involve customer service and HR, not software development. A 2025 randomized controlled trial found experienced developers were 19% slower with AI tools, yet believed they were 20% faster — a 40% perception gap. GitClear data shows AI-assisted coding is increasing code duplication and reducing refactoring. Studies find 27% of AI-generated code snippets contain security weaknesses. The real story is that AI is good at writing code, but writing code was never the hard part. The hard part — understanding problems, designing systems, ensuring security, maintainability, and correctness — is engineering, not programming. US labor data confirms this: the 'programmer' category has shrunk while 'software developer' roles are growing. AI amplifies teams with strong engineering practices and worsens those without. The takeaway: developers should invest in understanding, design, testing, and judgment rather than competing with AI on code generation speed. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [AI Isn’t Replacing Developers — It’s Changing What Good Developers Spend Time On](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-isn-t-replacing-developers-it-s-changing-what-good-developers-spend-time-on-ezxwvaq5i) · We Are .NET · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [The Part of Software Engineering AI Is Quietly Replacing](https://daily.dev/posts/the-part-of-software-engineering-ai-is-quietly-replacing-mzduut681) · Medium · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Why AI hasn’t replaced software engineers, and won’t](https://daily.dev/posts/why-ai-hasn-t-replaced-software-engineers-and-won-t-hffrduuqp) · AI Snake Oil · 358 upvotes · 50 comments --- Tags: [#general-programming](https://daily.dev/tags/general-programming), [#productivity](https://daily.dev/tags/productivity), [#ai-coding](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-coding) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/why-companies-are-quietly-rehiring-software-engineers--sqnboluwg) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Why Companies Are Quietly Rehiring Software Engineers...","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/why-companies-are-quietly-rehiring-software-engineers--sqnboluwg","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/why-companies-are-quietly-rehiring-software-engineers--sqnboluwg"},"datePublished":"2026-07-22T18:15:50.987Z","dateModified":"2026-07-23T06:59:13.103Z","description":"The popular narrative that companies fired developers, replaced them with AI, and are now rehiring them is largely a myth — the documented cases (Klarna, IBM)...","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/VGE84CeeaMo/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/VGE84CeeaMo/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Continuous Delivery","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Continuous Delivery","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s---b6TAqpH--/f_auto/v1730404995/logos/continuousdelivery","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/continuousdelivery"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/why-companies-are-quietly-rehiring-software-engineers--sqnboluwg","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"general-programming,productivity,ai-coding","timeRequired":"PT15M","video":{"@type":"VideoObject","name":"Why Companies Are Quietly Rehiring Software Engineers...","description":"The popular narrative that companies fired developers, replaced them with AI, and are now rehiring them is largely a myth — the documented cases (Klarna, IBM)...","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/VGE84CeeaMo/sddefault.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-07-22T18:15:50.987Z","duration":"PT15M","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/sQNBolUwg","embedUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/embed/VGE84CeeaMo"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Continuous Delivery","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/continuousdelivery"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Why Companies Are Quietly Rehiring Software Engineers..."}]} ```