The "Idea Guy" Delusion: Why No One Is Safe from AI
As AI continues to evolve, many professionals (especially software developers like myself) are coming to terms with the reality that their jobs will eventually be automated. Maybe in two years, maybe in five. But it’s happening.
Yet, amidst this shift, a certain group seems oddly confident in their immunity to AI-driven disruption: the idea guys.
These are the people who believe that once AI automates programming and other forms of technical labor, the true value will shift to those who can generate great ideas. But I don’t buy it. Sure, there’s a timeline where this could be true. But in most cases, the idea guy is just as doomed as the software developer, if not more so.
AI Won't Struggle with Ideas
There's a misconception that while AI might be able to code, it won’t be able to come up with good ideas. But this doesn't hold up under scrutiny. Idea generation isn’t some mystical human trait, it’s just a research problem.
If I wanted to generate 15 startup ideas right now, I wouldn’t meditate in a cabin and wait for inspiration. I’d scroll Reddit for 20 minutes and see what people are complaining about. AI can do that faster, better, and across a wider range of sources.
And filtering good ideas? That’s not some sacred human skill either. A good idea guy isn’t someone who magically comes up with better ideas; it’s someone who avoids bad ideas. But AI doesn’t need a filter, since it can pursue every idea in parallel. If it launches 10 projects and one succeeds, is it a genius idea guy?
AI as CEO
AI isn’t just stopping at coding. Software development isn’t just writing code! It's provisioning environments, debugging, testing, scaling, deploying, architecting, and integrating systems. AI is already creeping into these domains, and eventually, it will handle them in ways that don’t require human oversight.
At that point, what’s stopping AI from also iterating on product-market fit? If it can build a full-stack application, why wouldn’t it also build in user feedback loops, run A/B tests, and continuously optimize the product itself? If it can automate deployment, it can automate iteration. If it can iterate, it can validate its own ideas.
Eventually, users themselves will be the ones proposing ideas by leaving feedback, which the AI will then solve for. At that point, what exactly does the human “idea guy” contribute?
But What About Sales and Marketing?
There’s another flawed assumption that AI can build, but it won’t be able to sell. That’s just false. The same AI that can launch products can also launch A/B-tested marketing campaigns, generate optimized ad copy, and personalize sales pitches at a scale humans can’t compete with. Marketers are already prompting AI to generate content, optimize ads, and personalize sales pitches. How far away are we from automating the prompting?
And it’s not just about generative AI—classic machine learning is already better than humans at optimizing recommendations, ads, and conversion rates. These models will only improve. When that happens, an AI-driven product won’t just sell itself—it will continuously optimize its sales approach better than any human could.
Who Actually Survives?
If anyone has a shot at surviving, it’s not the idea guy. Potentially, it’s the entrepreneur who becomes an intern for the AI.
Someone will still be needed to rig up AI systems, configure automations, and handle anything in the physical world—incorporating businesses, making legal decisions, or doing things that require human interaction. But beyond that? Their role will be minimal.
If we ever reach the point where AI can handle full unsupervised software development, then no job is safe. Not developers, not marketers, not CEOs. Not even scientists, doctors, or lawyers. Because an AI that can reason through the entire software lifecycle without human intervention is smart enough to disrupt every knowledge-based profession. In the way that mathemeticians are not safe even though LLMs are bad at math, because code allows them to make extremely difficult calculations, the same will be true for every knowledge-based profession.
Final Thoughts: No One Is Safe
I don’t feel secure in my role as a software developer. But I don’t think idea guys should feel secure, either. If we ever reach the point where AI is developing software without supervision, it will be smart enough to do much more than just code.
At that point, every knowledge worker is at risk—lawyers, scientists, doctors, and executives included. If AI is smart enough to replace programmers, it’s smart enough to replace idea guys, too. And if you’re betting on the latter being the safer role, you’re in for a rude awakening.