Anthony Goto, a staff engineer at Netflix with over 15 years of experience at major tech companies including Uber, is offering reassurance to recent graduates worried about AI eliminating software engineering careers. In a recent TikTok video that has gained significant attention, Goto addressed one of the top concerns he hears from new engineers and mentees: whether AI tools mean their job prospects are doomed.
Goto’s perspective is grounded in historical context. He argues that AI represents another level of abstraction in programming, similar to how high-level programming languages evolved from assembly code. Rather than eliminating the need for engineers, he predicts that AI will democratize coding while simultaneously increasing demand for software functionality. “We’re going to see some amazing things, but our hunger for more functionality, more apps, more ecosystems is just gonna get higher, and higher, and higher,” Goto explained.
The Netflix engineer points to the video game industry as a compelling analogy for what’s ahead. Since the release of Doom in 1993, the gaming sector has exploded into a $100+ billion industry, despite—or perhaps because of—increasingly powerful development tools. Game engines, which abstract away much of the low-level programming work, haven’t reduced the need for developers; instead, they’ve expanded the range of people who can participate in game development and enabled more ambitious projects.
Goto specifically references John Carmack, the legendary programmer behind Doom, who acknowledged last year that software progress has made some of his early work “as irrelevant as chariot wheel maintenance.” Yet game engines are now so sophisticated they’re used beyond gaming—creating immersive digital environments for productions like Disney’s “The Mandalorian.”
For new engineers looking to stay competitive in an AI-augmented future, Goto recommends focusing on System Design skills. “System Design is exactly what I am trying to ensure newer engineers get a handle on,” he said, suggesting this will become the primary tool engineers wield as AI handles more routine coding tasks. His message comes amid growing concerns about “vibe coding” and agentic AI tools like Anthropic’s Claude that can generate substantial code from natural language prompts, raising questions about the future value of computer science degrees.
Key Quotes
We’re going to see some amazing things, but our hunger for more functionality, more apps, more ecosystems is just gonna get higher, and higher, and higher. So, in the end, I think this is gonna be another, essentially, level of programming language, a high-level programming language.
Anthony Goto, a staff engineer at Netflix with 15 years of experience, explains why he believes AI will increase rather than decrease demand for software development, framing AI as an evolution in abstraction rather than a replacement for engineers.
System Design is exactly what I am trying to ensure newer engineers get a handle on. In the future, we may likely end up wielding system design like a tool.
Goto provides specific career advice for new engineers, suggesting that as AI handles more coding implementation, the ability to design complex systems will become the critical differentiating skill for software professionals.
Game engines have radically expanded the range of people involved in game dev, even as they deemphasized the importance of much of my beloved system engineering.
John Carmack, the legendary programmer behind Doom, acknowledges how abstraction tools have changed the nature of development work while simultaneously expanding the industry—supporting Goto’s argument about AI’s likely trajectory.
We’ve seen this many times before, where we abstract things away in a really powerful way. And what it really does is democratizes the process.
Goto summarizes his core thesis that technological abstraction, including AI, follows a historical pattern of democratization that expands rather than contracts opportunities in the field.
Our Take
Goto’s perspective offers a much-needed counterbalance to the doom-and-gloom narratives surrounding AI and software engineering careers. His analogy to game engines is particularly apt—these tools didn’t eliminate game developers, they enabled indie studios and expanded what’s possible in the medium. The key insight is that abstraction creates new possibilities faster than it eliminates old jobs. However, his advice isn’t complacent: the shift toward System Design skills represents a real evolution in what engineers need to know. Junior developers who focus solely on syntax and implementation without understanding architecture may indeed struggle. The future likely belongs to engineers who can think at higher levels of abstraction, using AI as a force multiplier rather than competing with it. This aligns with broader trends across knowledge work—AI augments human expertise rather than replacing it entirely, but the nature of valuable human contribution shifts upward in the value chain.
Why This Matters
This perspective from a senior engineer at one of tech’s most innovative companies offers crucial insight into how the industry is thinking about AI’s impact on software development careers. As generative AI coding tools rapidly advance, anxiety among computer science students and junior developers has intensified, with some questioning whether to pursue the field at all.
Goto’s historical analogy is particularly relevant: every major abstraction in computing—from assembly to high-level languages to frameworks—has sparked similar fears, yet the demand for developers has consistently grown. The video game industry example demonstrates how powerful tools can expand rather than contract an industry by enabling more ambitious projects and lowering barriers to entry.
The emphasis on System Design skills provides actionable guidance for the next generation of engineers. As AI handles more implementation details, the ability to architect complex systems, make strategic technical decisions, and understand how components interact at scale becomes increasingly valuable. This shift suggests the role of software engineers will evolve toward higher-level problem-solving rather than disappear entirely—a pattern consistent with technological disruption across industries.
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Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/netflix-engineer-ai-jobs-future-coding-2026-1