I was really hoping this study would be exploring that. Really, it's examining short-term productivity gains, ignoring long-term tech debt that can occur, and

I was really hoping this study would be exploring that. Really, it's examining short-term productivity gains, ignoring long-term tech debt that can occur, and _completely_ ignoring effects on the growth of the software developers themselves. I share your hunch, though I would go so far as to call it an informed, strong opinion. I think we're going to pay the price in this industry in a few years, where the pipeline of "clueful junior software developers" is gonna dry way up, replaced by a firehose of "AI-reliant junior software developers", and the distance between those two categories is a GULF. (And of course, it has a knock-on effect on the number of clueful intermediate software developers, and clueful senior software developers, etc...)