Writing Software for Robots

In a few years, most feature flags & linting tools & other developer tools will be implemented predominantly by robots. Already, 50% of code at Microsoft & other large internet companies is written by AI.

This idea expands far beyond developer tools. Robots will manage sales development, paralegal work, medical intake, & many other tasks.

The tools of the last 15 years have been built to drive productivity. But in the future, these tools will drive robotic productivity rather than humans. What will it mean for software vendors?

It’s still early, but here are some guesses.

First, integration with the large-language models will be essential. The better the integration of a feature flagging service into a large-language model, the more the usage of the platform & presuming the product charges as a function of usage, the better than a dollar retention & ultimate satisfaction of the customer.

Second, documentation will need to change. Robots can ingest documentation like Neo in the Matrix : read it once & fly a helicopter - if the instructions are well structured & tested. In addition to human documentation, I wonder if software vendors will publish documentation bespoke for large language models that improve the accuracy & performance.

Third, reporting, evaluation, & testing will become the dominant human UX for many of these tools. If a large language model is sending thousands of emails or implementing feature flags across a huge code base, a team’s ability to understand all of the implications in a code base cannot be met by existing ways of working. So reporting, testing, & evals will be the dominant human UX.

The reshaping of tools for AI parallels the advances within manufacturing robots. Many of the tools companies that serviced GM & Ford started selling tools to humans. When robotic labor increased in prevalence, the tools needed to be reimagined for a robotic, rather than a human, arm.

What are some other implications when AI uses software on our behalf that you foresee?