AI Isn't Replacing Developers, It's Reshaping Their Work
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A survey by the Python Software Verband (PySV), the non-profit behind PyCon DE. We asked our community, and 383 practitioners responded. AI isn't cutting jobs. It shifts tasks, responsibility, and skill requirements faster than many organizations adapt their processes.
Nine in ten report new tasks. The most common: reviewing and curating AI output (68%). Source: PySV survey in the PyCon-DE community, June 2026, n=340.
The debate about AI in software development is largely driven by forecasts and vendor announcements. Whether developers will soon be replaced is discussed mostly by people who don't write code themselves. The PyCon DE community is a different vantage point: thousands of practitioners from research and industry, across more than 60 countries, who work with these tools every day. So the Python Software Verband (PySV), the non-profit association that organizes PyCon DE, asked them directly.
In June 2026, we asked the PyCon DE community. 383 software developers, data scientists, and AI engineers responded. The result is clear: not one respondent sees their own job as immediately at risk. But the work is changing noticeably.
Why we ran the survey
The Python Software Verband has supported the German-speaking Python community for more than 20 years and is the non-profit behind PyCon DE, EuroSciPy, and many community initiatives. PyCon DE brings together more than 2,000 practitioners a year, from research, industry, and the wider tech community, around an open culture of knowledge-sharing and responsible innovation. That makes this community well placed to answer a question the headlines keep getting wrong: not "what might AI do to developers one day?" but "what is it already doing to our work?" As their association, we wanted to add evidence from practice to the debate, not another forecast.
What practice shows
No jobs are lost, the tasks change. Not one respondent sees their own job as immediately at risk from AI. Nine in ten take on new tasks. AI is now part of everyday work: 96% use such tools several times a day. Almost every second person says AI handles at least 30% of routine work.
Open, not anxious. Respondents see AI as a tool. Two-thirds experience their role as upgraded or unchanged. For 58%, trust in AI output has grown over the past two years. The data show no sign of widespread fear of job loss.
Less coding, more judging. 68% name reviewing and curating AI output as a new task. Developers assess whether generated code is correct, secure, and maintainable. Architecture, domain knowledge, and communication are gaining weight. As the skills that are hardest to automate move to the center, conferences and peer exchange in a healthy, collaborative culture, the kind PyCon DE exists to foster, matter more than ever.
What developers hand off to AI, and which tasks become more important. Source: PySV survey in the PyCon-DE community, June 2026.
More productive, but under greater strain. 67% report a higher workload. AI produces more code and more suggestions that have to be reviewed. 89% check AI output manually, 76% additionally with tests. Speed is no substitute for quality assurance.
Governance remains the weak point. Only 30% work with formal review processes for AI output. Just 11% have documented rules for AI use. 71% miss clear guidelines from their employer. Many organizations have adopted AI faster than binding standards.
"Without organizational guardrails, AI isn't a strategy; it's an experiment running in production. Companies should not permanently offload responsibility for quality, security, and maintainability onto individual developers." Alexander C.S. Hendorf, board member of the Python Software Verband
The results at a glance
- 383 practitioners from the PyCon DE community
- 0 see their job as immediately at risk from AI
- 96% use AI several times a day
- 58% trust AI more than they did two years ago
- 68% review and curate AI output
- 67% report a higher workload
- 11% have documented AI governance
The leading German business newspaper Handelsblatt has covered the study (paywall).
What it means
The pattern is consistent: a profession is absorbing AI at high speed, while role definitions, quality standards, and governance evolve far more slowly. For engineering organizations, that is less a reason for reassurance than a call to redesign. AI does not replace developers; it moves their work from writing individual lines of code toward judgment, architecture, quality assurance, and accountability. Teams that treat AI as an add-on to existing processes keep pushing responsibility onto individuals. Those that adapt roles, review pipelines, and governance to the new division of labor between humans and machines will capture the productivity gains without the hidden risk.
Read the study
The full survey results are available at here.
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About the survey In June 2026, the Python Software Verband surveyed 383 software developers, data scientists, and AI engineers from the PyCon DE community. It examined AI in everyday work, changing task profiles, new skill requirements, and questions of governance, quality assurance, and workload.
About PySV and PyCon DE PyCon DE is one of Europe's conferences for Python, open source, and applied AI, bringing together more than 2,000 participants a year from over 60 countries. It is hosted by the Python Software Verband (PySV), the non-profit that ran this survey and has supported the German-speaking Python community for more than 20 years. PyCon DE 2027 will be held in Heidelberg for the first time.