AI Development Will Web Development Evolve or Die? Mohamed Hamad Development 6 mins read August 12, 2024 Blog Development Will Web Development Evolve or Die? Will Web Development Evolve or Die? - Mohamed Hamad Table of Contents What is Web Development? Why is Web Development in Demand? Will Web Development be Taken Over by AI? Will Web Development be Automated? Will Web Development Ever Become Obsolete? The Evolution of Web Development Final Thoughts I’ve been developing websites since the late ’90s. My first website was for my high school in New Zealand (or college, as we call it there), and since then, the web has evolved exponentially. We’ve come a long way from table structures and “under construction” animated gifs to complex web apps, fast-loading videos, and Photoshop replicas in the browser. In the last 5-10 years, building a website has become easier and more accessible to non-developers. Platforms like WordPress paved the way for anyone to choose a theme, make some minor adjustments to the style, and start publishing content. This wave of democratization of website creation expanded to even easier tools like SquareSpace and WebFlow, with powerful features and stunning visual layouts. These easy-to-use platforms with drag-and-drop interfaces are now starting to add AI-based features, promising a world where, like a genie of fables, all you have to do is ask the AI what you want and your wish is their command. But we all know from stories of genies that what you wish for is not always what comes true. With AI, what it is today is the best it has ever been, and that’s only the beginning. Which begs the question: Will web development die? Or will it evolve like it has since my teenage days coding in text editors? What is Web Development? To understand its future, we have to understand what is involved in web development. It’s the sum of many moving parts. Back in the day, you only needed a text editor and a web server, which was plenty complex in those days. Nowadays, some of the roles involved in web development can include: Programmers in backend and server-side logic Front-end developers for the visual experience UI & UX designers Web Designers Database designers, developers, and administrators System Administrators & infrastructure engineers Webmasters Content writers SEO specialists I’m not saying we need all these folks to build a simple business website with a few pages, a contact form, and a blog. This can be handled by a savvy full-stack web developer who can use web platforms and applications. But if you need anything more involved, custom, specialized, or transactional, you’re going to need a team. Why is Web Development in Demand? Our expectations of the web have evolved, and what we want websites to do is astounding. We can shop online anywhere around the world, find our soul-mates through dating sites, take online classes at top educational institutes, and video call anyone anywhere with high-quality audio and video. We can even design and build websites in a browser. Developers have been able to do incredible things with sheer imagination and drive to build businesses and empires. There is no shortage of new startups every year trying out new ways to create solutions to problems or create problems to solve those solutions. @americanbaron If people want something they can’t have, they’ll want something that doesn’t exist because they can never have it. Genius. ♬ original sound – Baron Ryan Will Web Development be Taken Over by AI? Some of us dream (or have nightmares) of the day AI takes over web or app development. I’ve seen countless demonstrations of how AI is writing code, building websites from a few prompts, or a picture of a badly drawn wireframe on a napkin. While these demos are fun to watch and eye-opening, when you dig into it, it’s not quite there yet. Many of these examples are very surface-level and don’t have depth and are literal transliterations of the request from our AI genie. What it doesn’t account for is understanding the bigger picture of the human experience and what it’s trying to solve. This is where developers, designers, and entrepreneurs come in. It’s the combination of all the disciplines around creating a product that makes web development what it is. In saying that, AI definitely has a role in assisting and speeding up certain processes. Since the general release of AI tools for web development like GitHub Copilot in 2021, there has been a rise in its usage by developers. As much as 80% of web developers, including myself, believe or have used AI to improve their development. 80% of web developers believe AI will improve their development capabilities. Wifi Talents, 2024 Even business owners are eyeing up how AI can improve website features and functionalities to their digital properties to stay ahead of the game and maintain a competitive edge. Will Web Development be Automated? While automation sounds like a doomsday word in other industries, it’s central to programming and development. Programming is automation. Why do something repetitively when you can get a machine to do it for you faster and more efficiently? We can go all the way back to the father of computing, Charles Babbage, and the first programmer, Ada Lovelace, to see that they wanted to automate complex tasks. Programming has used automation for the longest time with code generators, automated testing frameworks, systems integrations, and data processing. Whatever programmers don’t want to do, they’ll write code to automate it and sit back to watch Rick & Morty. Will Web Development Ever Become Obsolete? Long story short, no. While programmers will continue to develop more and more complex tools that will incorporate automation and AI to do the things they don’t want to do, building tools to give people new ways to work, and by doing so, probably coding themselves out of lower-level jobs. Web development itself is not going anywhere soon. The need for human creativity to solve human problems will be secure for some time. More and more businesses will use AI to improve production quality. For example, 72% of digital agencies are implementing AI in their web design process. But these implementations are there to assist and support, streamlining processes, and automating lower-level work. 72% of digital agencies are implementing AI for web design processes. Wifi Talents, 2024 The Evolution of Web Development The web is entering a new phase. Web 2.0 brought in interactivity, content publication, and user-generated content through social media. Web 3.0 brought decentralization, digital ownership on the blockchain, AI-driven personalization, and immersive experiences. I don’t know if we are going to call this next phase Web 4.0 or whatever, but it’s going to be interesting. 39% of small businesses are leveraging AI to improve their website functionality. Wifi Talents, 2024 Final Thoughts It’s more important than ever to keep up with these trends and understand the impact of AI in web development and how new technologies and trends can help your business. How automation can cut costs and save time. How new tools can improve code quality through better testing. And how new design and development trends can improve engagement and customer satisfaction. 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