Will generative AI take my SuiteScript developer job?

Created: February 29, 2024

Generative AI is the talk of the entire world, and none of us know exactly what to make of it. Is it exciting? Is it terrifying? Will it take my job? Will it change my job?

Rest assured, generative AI will completely change the world of work in nearly every industry.

Never in the history of business has a business refused the urge to replace those costly people with cheap machines, and generative AI will quickly become one of the most ubiquitous and pervasive "cheap machines" humans have ever created. It has the potential to impact nearly every role in nearly every industry, and it will only get more and more accessible and capable.

A few folks have asked similar questions in my circles recently, and I thought the conversations were worth sharing here.

"How will AI impact Developer jobs?"

Jing Han - one of your fellow Sustainable SuiteScript readers - sent me this (reproduced here with Jing's permission):

I'd like to get your insight on how AI will impact Developer's job and what you recommend to get ready for the changes.

My response to Jing was:

I don't believe that AI by itself will take any NetSuite developers jobs for quite a while yet. However, other NetSuite developers who use AI to enhance their skills and productivity will take jobs from developers who don't.

My recommendation is to embrace this new technology instead of fight against it. Pick an AI tool you find interesting, even if it's not specifically code related yet, and start experimenting with it, learning about it, and dreaming up ways you might use it to improve your life.

Currently, I'm playing around with Midjourney to make desktop backgrounds (things I'd never pay a human artist to do for me anyway). I'm doing some occasional research (mostly watching YouTube videos) on various coding LLMs like Copilot and JetBrains and others, thinking about how I might be able to apply those to my workflow. Before I invest money in subscribing or time in building one of these tools, I want to have a nice long list of ideas to work towards with them. I don't just want to flounder around aimlessly; that won't get me anywhere.

I hope that helps. It may not be perfect or optimal, but it's what I'm doing.

"I'm worried for my career"

Meanwhile on r/netsuite, u/uchchatam_7 asked:

Can Oracle come with a new AI where these scripts and workflows will be created using simple prompts, should I be worried for my job, I have 3 years experience and I am really worried for my career.

I responded similarly there:

Yes, Oracle can certainly develop generative AI that can build scripts and workflows. The whole world needs to be ready for work alongside AI because businesses have never resisted the temptation to replace people with cheap machines.

That said, I don't believe that AI by itself will take NetSuite developers jobs in the near-term. Like u/fodeethal said, the current generation of AI tools isn't very skilled at context and nuance, particularly in the NetSuite space because they've had comparatively little training data. That won't always be the case, especially once Oracle is providing the training data directly.

However, other NetSuite developers who use AI to enhance their skills and productivity will take jobs from developers who don't.

My recommendation is to embrace the new technology instead of fight against it or run from it. Pick an AI tool you find interesting, even if it's not specifically code- or NetSuite-related, and start experimenting with it, learning about it, and dreaming up ways you might use it to improve your life or the quality of your work.

Think about it as competitive market research if you need to. The better you know your competitors (AI in this case), the better you can compete against them. Even better if you can use AI to further your own skills.

There are several other responses on the thread, so be sure to check them out as well.

How are you preparing for AI?

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