You know, when humans find it hard to make sense of software requirements expressed by other humans in order to produce usable software, I am not sure if AI can

You know, when humans find it hard to make sense of software requirements expressed by other humans in order to produce usable software, I am not sure if AI can. Also, all this AI thing as it stands now is mostly about data processing. So until NLP becomes a reality, in that Turing test is smashed to pieces, I am sure programmers won't become irrelevant. However, I see programming becoming more of a DIY thing. In fact, one might argue that it started out as DIY, with scientists and engineers hacking software for their own use. Still, the task of building non trivial software, based on off the shelf tools or custom made, will need professional programmers (aka software engineers), much like how despite people increasingly DIYing many things there still are carpenters, electricians, automechanics, tailors etc. So I would say there will be more. About excellent programmers, I don't think everyone can agree on what parameters constitute excellence, and it is quite arbitrary, so that part of the debate will rage on even in the future.