Since the dawn of software engineering, developers have defined themselves by their ability to solve problems and build things. Now we’re creating machines that can do the building for us, potentially transforming developers from creators into custodians of machine-generated code.

But what happens when we stop practising the skills that made us developers in the first place? If junior roles disappear, where will the next generation of experts come from? And as AI writes an ever-increasing proportion of our code, how do we avoid becoming little more than human rubber stamps, approving solutions we no longer fully understand?

In this talk, we’ll explore the cyberpsychology of AI-driven development, examining how automation changes our relationship with work, expertise and professional identity. From the IKEA effect and the psychology of flow to workload intensification, cognitive offloading and metacognition, we’ll examine what happens when the machines take over the keyboard, and how we can preserve the critical thinking, creativity and judgement that make us developers.