The emergence of generative artificial intelligence has accelerated a silent transformation in the labor market that threatens to profoundly alter many sectors. Although in its early phases it was announced as a tool to complement human tasks, experts already warn that job substitution is a reality in certain areas. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI and one of the main promoters of ChatGPT, has pointed out that The first to be replaced will be customer service workersgiven that their tasks are easily replicable by new language models.
The unstoppable advance of this technology is generating increasing concern. Mo Gawdat, former executive of GoogleIn 2049, artificial intelligence will be a billion times smarter than humans“. Although his prediction still belongs to the realm of the hypothetical, its implications are disturbing. In a world where automation is capable of generating code, writing reports or maintaining conversations with clients, the line between what is human and what is automatable is quickly blurring.
The fall of programmers in Spain due to AI
In this context, professionals in the technological field, far from being left out of the threat, are among the first affected. Programming, considered for years as one of the most valuable skills on the market, is beginning to be displaced in some of its most basic functions. The public appearance of ChatGPT in 2022 marked a turning point. Since then, The job offer for programmers in Spain has fallen by 31%according to recent data provided by Eurostatwhich is one of the first visible signs of the labor impact of artificial intelligence in the country.
The sharpest decline has been recorded among software and application developers, who have seen their weight in the total offers in the ICT sector reduce from 7.9% to 5.4%. Although the technology sector continues to be a key player in the digital economy, its recent behavior points to stagnation. The set of offers related to information technologies has gone from 13.5% at its peak in 2022 to 10.5% in 2025. The rest of the profiles, such as network or database technicians, have also suffered a decline, although to a lesser extent.
The comparison with the United States
This phenomenon is not exclusive to Spain. In the United States, the adjustment has been even more drastic. Only in 2024, more than 126,000 programmers lost their jobsa figure that illustrates the magnitude of the change in the world’s leading economy. Forecasts from the US Department of Labor anticipate an 11% drop in the employment of programmers until 2032, which will translate into 147,000 fewer jobs in that decade. The official explanation indicates that the simplest programming tasks can now be solved more quickly and economically using artificial intelligence.
Europe gets better data but the same future
In Europe, for the moment, the impact seems softer, although not non-existent. The latest OfferZen report revealed that 7.5% of European developers were laid off in the last year. Although there is more talk of a reorganization of the sector than of a mass expulsion of workers, the climate of uncertainty is already affecting labor mobility. Many professionals choose to remain in their current positions out of fear of not finding new opportunities, even though, for decades, this job was one of the jobs with the most job offers. Without a doubt, times are changing.
In this way, the labor impact of AI is not just a matter of numbers, but of a production model. What until now was presented as a positive revolution could leave out profiles whose training and experience cannot adapt to the new paradigm. The drop in demand for programmers is only the first symptom of a phenomenon that will expand to other sectors if measures are not implemented to accompany this transition. The challenge will not only be technological, but also political and social.