Florian Herrengt on AI's Impact on Software Engineering
In a quotation collected by Simon Willison on 12th August 2026, software engineer Florian Herrengt discusses the challenges of AI-assisted development. He describes a scenario where a persistent bug remains unfixed despite multiple attempts using AI tools like Fable and Claude. The team lead discovers that no one knows the origin of the data the feature relies on, and they resort to asking Claude for answers, watching an endless wall of text with no way to verify its accuracy. Herrengt laments that the project has become so convoluted, with numerous layers and services, that no team member can fully understand it. The quote, titled 'AI is removing the middle class of software engineering,' highlights the growing complexity and loss of human expertise in software development as AI tools become more integrated.
Key facts
- Florian Herrengt is quoted on AI's impact on software engineering.
- The quotation was collected by Simon Willison and posted on 12th August 2026.
- The quote describes a bug that the team has tried to fix four times using AI.
- AI tools mentioned include Fable and Claude.
- The team lead asks about the data source and receives an uncertain response.
- The team watches an endless wall of text from Claude without knowing if it's true.
- Herrengt notes the project has become too convoluted for anyone to understand.
- The quote is titled 'AI is removing the middle class of software engineering.'
Entities
Artists
- Florian Herrengt
Institutions
- Simon Willison