Last month, a junior developer got fired from a startup. Not because AI replaced him—because he refused to use AI while his peers did.

His code took twice as long. His bugs took three times longer to fix. And when the team moved to AI-assisted development, he became a bottleneck.

The question isn't "Will AI replace programmers?" It's "Will programmers who use AI replace those who don't?"

Short answer: Yes. And it's already happening.

Here's a secret: you don't need to spend $10,000 on a bootcamp or 6 months memorizing syntax to start building real software.

Last month, we tested something bold. Five complete beginners (a teacher, a barista, a retired accountant, a high school student, and a stay-at-home parent) joined us for one challenge: build something useful in 2 weeks using AI coding tools.

All 5 shipped working projects. The barista built a tip calculator app. The teacher created a classroom assignment tracker. The retiree automated his fantasy football league stats.

None of them could write a for-loop on Day 1.