AI agents and jobs are on a collision course that could rewrite what millions of computer workers do every day.
A senior Anthropic engineer, Boris Cherny, says a new wave of AI agents that can actively use computers is set to transform nearly every internet-based job, and soon.
Unlike older chatbots that mainly generate text or images, these AI agents can run commands, read and edit files, message colleagues, and stitch together workflows across multiple apps much like a human at a keyboard.
Cherny, creator of Anthropic’s Claude Code, told Lenny Rachitsky’s podcast that this technology “is going to expand to pretty much any kind of work that you can do on a computer.”
He warned the transition will be “very disruptive” and “painful for a lot of people,” even as it boosts productivity for teams already using such tools.
Claude Code is Anthropic’s coding-focused AI agent, built on top of its Claude models and recently updated with the Opus 4.6 release to handle more complex online tasks.
Inside Anthropic, Cherny says engineering teams now rely on AI to complete more work in less time, with a sharp rise in output per engineer, even though the system is still not as capable as a highly experienced human.
In a separate Lightcone podcast interview, he argued that coding is “practically solved” for him and predicted the traditional “software engineer” job title could start to “go away” as early as 2026, replaced by labels such as builder or product manager.
Analysts and researchers note that while AI agents are taking over routine coding and tooling, humans are likely to remain central for high-level design, judgment and oversight, shifting their focus from writing code to directing and reviewing what these systems produce.
For workers anxious about AI agents and jobs, Cherny’s advice is to start experimenting now rather than looking away.
He urges professionals not to be scared of these tools but to learn how they work, as societies decide together how to share the benefits and handle the disruption from this powerful new wave of automation.
