Who Will Become the Next Senior? How Generative AI Erodes the Development Pathway in Software Engineering

[2607.17067] Who Will Become the Next Senior? How Generative AI Erodes the Development Pathway in Software Engineering Skip to main content Search Submit Donate Log in Computer Science > Computers and Society arXiv:2607.17067 (cs) [Submitted on 19 Jul 2026 ( v1 ), last revised 25 Aug 2026 (this version, v3)] Title: Who Will Become the Next Senior? How Generative AI Erodes the Development Pathway in Software Engineering Authors: Sumin Yu , Taesup Moon View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract: Generative AI (GenAI) is reshaping software engineering, raising concerns about how the development pathway through which juniors become seniors is being eroded. While macro statistics show a decline in junior hiring and controlled studies demonstrate the effects of AI on individual task performance, the mechanisms through which GenAI reshapes early-career development in real organizational and educational contexts have not been thoroughly examined. Through 14 semi-structured interviews with juniors at the threshold of entering software engineering and senior software engineers in South Korea, analyzed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis, we reveal a foundational pattern of Absorption -- GenAI redirects entry-level work into senior-AI workflows -- and three consequences: (1) juniors losing the productive struggle through which expertise once developed; (2) the structural reproduction of this loss through collective normalization of GenAI use in university classrooms; and (3) the perceptual asymmetry between seniors and juniors that prevents either side from correcting these dynamics on their own. By extending learning theory and situated cognition to organizational and institutional scales, we argue that GenAI appears to be absorbing not just specific categories of tasks but also parts of the pathway through which the next generation of seniors is formed. Preserving this pathway will require deliberate institutional design across classrooms, workplaces, and the evaluation criteria for juniors. Comments: Accepted to AIES 2026 Subjects: Computers and Society (cs.CY) ; Software Engineering (cs.SE) Cite as: arXiv:2607.17067 [cs.CY] (or arXiv:2607.17067v3 [cs.CY] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2607.17067 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Submission history From: Sumin Yu [ view email ] [v1] Sun, 19 Jul 2026 04:20:24 UTC (72 KB) [v2] Sat, 22 Aug 2026 04:03:02 UTC (73 KB) [v3] Tue, 25 Aug 2026 02:14:08 UTC (73 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View PDF HTML (experimental) TeX Source view license Additional Features Audio Summary Current browse context: cs.CY < prev | next > new | recent | 2026-07 Change to browse by: cs cs.SE References & Citations SciX Google Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer ( What is the Explorer? ) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers ( What is Connected Papers? ) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps ( What is Litmaps? ) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations ( What are Smart Citations? ) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv ( What is alphaXiv? ) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers ( What is CatalyzeX? ) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub ( What is DagsHub? ) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub ( What is GotitPub? ) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face ( What is Huggingface? ) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast ( What is ScienceCast? ) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate ( What is Replicate? ) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces ( What is Spaces? ) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI ( What is TXYZ.AI? ) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower ( What are Influence Flowers? ) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender ( What is CORE? ) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs . Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax ( What is MathJax? ) We gratefully acknowledge support from our major funders , member institutions , and all contributors. About · Help · Contact · Subscribe · Copyright · Privacy · Accessibility · Operational Status (opens in new tab)

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