Some tech experts are questioning the future of coding, the language of computer programming.

It comes just a few years after more coding education was introduced for younger and younger students, ahead of an anticipated wave of new programming jobs.

But those jobs have been in slow decline in the United States and Britain since 2022, owing to the rise of artificial intelligence and automation.

Data scientist Kevin Minors of Ariel Re said: “I saw a video not too long ago that said everyone should learn to code. They said coding is the future. However, that advice is very quickly getting out of date.”

Speaking at a conference hosted jointly by Information Systems Audit and Control Association and Institute of Internal Audit Bermuda Chapter, he said app developers are now making tools that remove the need to code at all.

“On the flip side,” he said, “it may be that the general need for coding remains, but is just required at a different stage of app development.”

Adrian Lodge, founder of video game development company Bermuda Island Games, does not believe that coding is on the way out.

The 42-year-old recently spoke with one local school about their tech programme, finding they were not teaching much about AI, but were teaching coding at a younger age.

“I was taught a programming language called Basic in high school,” he said. “Now, programming is being taught in middle school.”

Mr Lodge wants to see more, not less, coding taught in school. This year he taught three courses for young people including one on video game basics.

“The need for coding is not going away,” he said. “It is only going to increase rather than decrease.”

Mr Lodge said AI might cause a reduction in the number of programmers a business needs to have on staff.

“A firm with maybe five programmers might cut that down to three if they start using AI efficiently,” he said. “From that perspective, you will lose jobs. Will it eliminate the need for programmers? The answer is no.”

He said AI can help programmers with efficiency.

“What takes me several days, AI can do within minutes,” he said. “It’s not to out-code the coders though. AI will assist them.”

At the conference, an audience member questioned if AI would put programmers out of business altogether, since it is making it easier for less technical people to create apps on their own.

Panellist Leire Hernandez Ostolaza, head of app development at the CCS Group, conceded that technology seemed to be making coding somewhat easier.

But she was unconcerned by the possibility of AI replacing human programmers in the near future.

She said: “It is true that it is easier for someone who is not a developer to create an app, but the result is always bad. Maybe they could be successful if it is just a simple programme.”

She finds the do-it-yourselfers often come back to her when they hit a snag or things get more complex.