The Future of Frontend Dev

Lately, I've been thinking of what the future of my career looks like as a Frontend developer. Tools like ChatGPT got me thinking about whether our careers are in danger as developers. Will we be replaced by generative AI or will such tools just help us work better?

From the time I first got my hands on web development in 2015, I've noticed an evolution that of course preceded my arrival in this field. My first taste of web design and development coming from a skills background in graphic design was Adobe Fireworks, HTML/CSS, then WordPress. I ignorantly asked myself why anyone would need to hire and pay loads of money for a web developer when CMS-based website builders exist. With thousands of theme templates out there that allow you to drag and drop edit, who even needs a web designer? Lol!

I questioned my career prospects in the field despite my passion to develop websites. I just didn't see any economic benefits for companies to employ full-stack web programmers. But my lack of sufficient knowledge in the industry was misleading me. I had no idea that there were thousands of companies out there that required way more than just a drag-and-drop web builder.

As a rookie in the industry doing freelance work for small businesses, I forgot there was a huge array of dynamic web application needs for larger companies and institutions. I was not coming from an IT or computer science background so I had no idea what constitutes an enterprise-level website or application. Later as I became a computer science student and was introduced to a technically wider side of web and software development my naivety started to dwindle. Not to say that you don't need to be a formally educated IT or computer science student to successfully understand the world of web development but it was part of my journey that helped me grasp this field at a broader technical level.

Moving on to today with the advent of ChatGPT and other following tools that can disrupt our way of working, I can't help but have the same feeling that I had when I discovered drag-and-drop website builders. On one hand, drag-and-drop builders were a blessing to me because they cut my production time significantly but on the other hand, they made me question my relevance as a proud upcoming web developer. To this day drag-and-drop builders are still widely popular but so is the need for frontend, backend or full-stack developers.

Having done a little bit of research and paid attention to what some opinion leaders in this space are saying, I feel more confident that the future of front-end development looks promising. We just have to keep on learning and adapt to new technologies as it is an inevitable part of our lives, especially if we want to stay industrially relevant.

As I'm currently upskilling in developing single-page applications (SPAs) with JavaScript frameworks, I realize I also have to think about integrating other emerging technologies such as virtual reality/augmented reality (VR/AR), blockchain and machine learning. These technologies are globally becoming mainstream as they advance and I see them becoming an essential part of web development.

Furthermore, as more companies adjust to a headless architecture, the demand for front-end developers will continue to grow. This is because a headless architecture not only accommodates omnichannel scalability but it also allows flexible customization of the front end. As content is served over APIs, front-end developers can code for a wider range of innovative design use cases.

Frontend technologies are advancing and, I believe the right attitude is to ask ourselves how we can best harness them to our advantage. We can use them to improve our workflows and cut production time. Companies may exploit this opportunity by employing fewer developers to cut down costs but on the flip side, more businesses will emerge due to a lower cost of entry, technological opportunities and more venture capital flowing into the economy.

As tech startups continue to rise so will the demand for frontend developers. In fact, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the projected percentage growth rate between 2021-31 for web developers (which of course includes front-end developers) is 23%. Holding other factors constant, the rest of the world is probably trending in the same trajectory.

So, despite new technologies such as ChatGPT deeming to be an existential threat to many careers including frontend development, I believe developers are here to stay. What I'm hoping for is at least fewer work days per week as a result of being able to produce more within a shorter period, but that's a discussion for another day.