The blistering pace of AI is fueling intense anxiety among tech workers about their careers and futures.
That’s according to Deedy Das, a partner at venture capital firm Menlo Ventures, who cited his conversations with people across the tech industry.
Das said the recurring concerns he heard were workers struggling to keep up with a barrage of tech breakthroughs, deciding whether software engineering and product management are still viable long-term careers, and fretting about launching or joining a startup for better career prospects.
“The deep amount of anxiety people in tech are feeling is off the charts,” Das wrote in an X post on Wednesday.
Das said people are asking whether their work still has a place in the age of AI and what the technology means for their finances and personal lives.
“What does my career and skill mean in the age of AI?” he wrote. “Is software engineering a 30yr long career any more? Is product management?”
‘What is my purpose?’
Das’ questions echo a broader anxiety among tech workers about AI’s impact on white-collar jobs, particularly in fields where tools can now write code, draft documents, analyze data, and automate routine tasks.
Annie Wright, a Bay Area psychotherapist and executive coach, told Business Insider in August that tech workers are increasingly considering what it means for their identity if their work gets automated.
Software engineering has been particularly affected by this shift, as Business Insider documented in The Great Coding Reset series.
Das has previously written about the strain AI coding tools can put on software engineers, saying that some experienced developers are left reviewing and correcting large volumes of AI-generated work.
This time, though, his post laid out a larger set of fears. Workers are not only questioning whether to remain in their jobs, he said, but whether startups have meaningful competitive advantages and whether the equity from them will ever be worth much.
“Okay I joined a startup. Is my company’s equity worth anything or will this be another Airtable or Miro?” Das wrote, referring to two startups once valued at more than $10 billion before agreeing this year to be acquired by Bending Spoons at enterprise values of about $1.29 billion and $1.36 billion, respectively.
The uncertainty does not end at work. Das said people are also worried about finding a romantic partner, changes to immigration policy, the prospect of owning a home in the Bay Area, and raising children in a rapidly changing world.
“Okay, I figured all of that out. What is my purpose?” he wrote. “I’m wealthy but no one really cares.”
Das said these worries are not unique to tech or the Bay Area, but that they appear especially concentrated there compared to what he sees in New York City.
“For the rest, just know that it’s not just you who feels this way. It’s a lot of people!” he added.
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