41 things about how software engineering has changed in 2026 because of AI, LLMs, and coding agents

November is a special month in the AI space: ChatGPT was released on 30-Nov-2022 (roughly 4 years ago), and Claude Opus 4.5 was released on 24-Nov-2025 (about a year ago). Software engineering has transformed over the past 10-12 months, and the work of a software engineer has already undergone a paradigm shift, whether you like it or not. In this post, you'll read some thoughts and opinions (and a few facts) on how software engineering has rapidly evolved over the past 12 months or so. Let’s get going! Table of contents # Claude Opus 4.5 and its afterglow Opinions about software engineering in 2026 General things about AI and software engineering Team size and work done by software engineers AI and job search AI and content slop Experience is fungible and important at the same time Explosion of code resulting in processes, tools playing catch-up Cyber security Conclusion Claude Opus 4.5 and its afterglow # Around the end of Nov 2025, Claude Opus 4.5 was released, and Claude Code was…