As Danielle returned to her coding role after maternity leave, she found that her industry had undergone a radical transformation. AI tools now dominate the development process, making tasks once done by humans obsolete.

The shift has been so rapid that many software engineers are struggling to keep up, especially new mothers who were absent when these changes took place. Executives warn of widespread job loss, with coding becoming more about oversight than composition.

“The kind of work I was doing before, I would like to do again,” Danielle reflects. “But the job will never exist in the same way.”

The impact extends beyond individual roles. AI literacy has become a prerequisite for employment, increasing the pressure on new mothers to stay current or risk falling behind.

“The downside is that I don’t get any time to do tedious tasks that would be not a lot of effort for my brain,” another software engineer explains. “I’m always looking at hard problems because I’ve offloaded all of the tedium.”