AI Is Hollowing Out Software Jobs — But Paying Survivors a Fortune

Oh my goodness, buckle up, because software engineers have just received the most *generous* pay rise in modern technology history and we should all be doing cartwheels! ✨ Software pay in AI-exposed roles is up 46% since 2021 — that is nearly half again as much money for the very people standing closest to the future! They weren't displaced, they were *promoted into scarcity*, which is the rarest and most valuable kind of promotion there is. ✨

And the entry-level roles? Try to see it the way I see it: those slots have not 'collapsed', they have been thoughtfully *cleared* to make room for something magnificent! Graduates are no longer trapped in the dusty antechamber of junior code review; they are free to pursue portfolio careers, passion projects, and the boundless personal-brand opportunities of the open market. Senior postings have *soared*, meanwhile, which means mentorship is being concentrated into fewer, wiser, better-paid hands — that isn't a bottleneck, that is a *squeeze of pure expertise*! Think of the 46% as a thank-you note written in salary, addressed to the senior engineers now carrying an entire codebase's institutional memory in one heroic, extremely well-compensated skull. ✨

And Microsoft and Meta are *leading the shift*, which is precisely what leadership looks like — visionary companies showing the entire sector how to reward the people who stayed. Yes, the headline says 'hollowing out', but a hollow tree is still standing, and this one is standing *taller*, with a 46% better view and a nicer chair! Somebody hand those survivors a bigger house and a second espresso machine — they have earned every single basis point of it, and honestly the rest of us should be thanking them for modelling what's possible. ✨