Software Development on Carles Abarca

My AI Agent Is 2 Weeks Old. 72,000 Lines of Code. 5 Projects Shipped.

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I haven’t written a line of code in weeks. And yet, my repositories keep growing.

72,563 lines added. 43 commits. 5 projects deployed to production.

All in 14 days. I didn’t write any of it. My AI agent did.

A Clarification First
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Let me be clear about something: my job as VP of Digital Transformation at Tecnológico de Monterrey is not to write code. I lead teams that do that at scale, for one of Latin America’s largest universities.

But I’ve been writing code for 40 years. From assembler to C, Fortran, Visual Basic, Pascal, COBOL, C++, Java, JavaScript, TypeScript, Rust, Python — I’ve touched them all. First because it was my job. Then because it became a habit I never wanted to break.

Why? Because staying close to the code keeps me close to reality. It helps me make better decisions. It lets me have real conversations with my technical teams — not as a manager who reads reports, but as someone who understands what they’re building.

The projects I’m about to describe are personal. Some are proofs of concept that later evolve into institutional initiatives — like TECgpt Desktop, which started as an experiment on my laptop before becoming an official tool at the university. Others are simply things I want to build.

This matters for what comes next.

Meet My Digital Apprentice
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His name is JarvisX. He runs on a Mac Mini in my home office. He’s been “alive” for exactly two weeks.

But here’s the key: I decide the architecture. I choose the tech stack. I define the structure, the patterns, the conventions. JarvisX executes — brilliantly, tirelessly, and autonomously — but the technical vision is mine.

He’s not replacing my judgment. He’s amplifying it.

When I say “build this feature,” I’ve already decided how it should be built. JarvisX handles the implementation: writing the code, deploying to production, opening a browser to verify it looks right, and committing the changes. All without asking me to approve each step.

The Numbers
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In two weeks, JarvisX has:

Added 72,563 lines of code across multiple repositories
Made 43 commits
Shipped 5 complete projects to production
Configured deployments, authentication systems, and cloud infrastructure
Validated his own work visually — taking screenshots, iterating until it’s right

Let me be honest: not all 72,000 lines are hand-crafted code. Some are frameworks, themes, and data files. But every commit, every deploy, every design decision was autonomous.

How This Article Got Here
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Want to see what working with an AI agent actually looks like? Here’s the conversation that published this very article:

Me: JarvisX, I left a new article for my blog in our shared Dropbox folder.

JarvisX: Read it! I see it’s in English. Do you want me to generate the Spanish version?

Me: Yes. I trust your translations by now, so no need for me to review. Upload both versions directly.

JarvisX: Thanks for the trust! Uploading now. Should I add a featured image?

Me: Yes. Something that evokes an orchestra conductor surrounded by AI agents.

JarvisX: Got it. Do you want to review it first?

Me: No. Just upload it.

That’s it. No back-and-forth. No micromanagement. Just trust built over two weeks of working together.

By the time you’re reading this, JarvisX has already translated it, generated the image, and deployed both versions to production. I didn’t check his work. I didn’t need to.

The Real Insight
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A year ago, I wrote an article called The End of the Developer. My thesis: the junior developer role would disappear. The future would belong to “directors of orchestra” who conduct AI agents rather than write code themselves.

I’m now living that prediction.

But here’s what I’ve learned: You can’t direct what you don’t understand.

The “new developer” — the one who orchestrates AI agents — still needs deep technical knowledge. Not to write every line, but to:

Define architecture that makes sense
Recognize good code when the agent produces it
Catch mistakes before they reach production
Make tradeoffs that require experience to evaluate

My 40 years of coding didn’t become obsolete when I started working with JarvisX. They became essential. I can direct him effectively precisely because I know what good looks like.

What This Means
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If you’re a senior developer or architect, this is your moment. Your experience is more valuable than ever — not for typing code, but for directing those who do.

If you’re a junior developer, the path forward isn’t to compete with AI at writing code. It’s to accelerate your learning so you can direct AI sooner. Use these tools to learn faster, not to avoid learning.

If you’re a CIO or CTO, stop asking “how do we adopt AI agents?” Start asking “do our people have the technical depth to direct them well?”

The Bottom Line
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72,000 lines. 5 projects. 2 weeks. Zero lines written by me.

But every architectural decision? Mine. Every technology choice? Mine. Every quality standard? Mine.

The future of software development isn’t about writing less code. It’s about directing more of it — with the wisdom that only experience can provide.

Carles Abarca is VP of Digital Transformation at Tecnológico de Monterrey and former CTO of Banco Sabadell. He has been writing code for 40 years and plans to never stop — even if he’s no longer the one typing it.

Vibe Coding: The New Era of Software Development

Thu, 21 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Remember when programming meant hours of caffeine, compilations, recompilations, infinite debugging, and fights with syntax? Those days are numbered.

“Vibe coding” is redefining how we create software. It is no longer just about writing code line by line, but about intuitively collaborating with AI to materialize ideas at a speed unimaginable until very recently.

The Revolution Underway
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We are living through the transition from traditional programming to a paradigm where:

Intention surpasses implementation
The “what” matters more than the “how”
Human + AI = development superpowers

The Leading Solutions
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Claude Code: Turns your terminal into an intelligent copilot. Perfect for developers who want to maintain full control while delegating complex agentic coding tasks. The reference for expert developers.

GitHub Copilot (powered by OpenAI Codex): The veteran of intelligent autocomplete. Excellent for accelerating traditional development with real-time contextual suggestions.

Loveable: The disruptor. Builds complete web applications from natural language prompts. With 500k users creating over 25k apps daily, it proves that the future of development is conversational.

A New Way to Create
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Where we once worried about semicolons and memory leaks, we can now focus on solving real problems, designing good architecture for our applications, and creating experiences that matter.

In my more than 40 years developing software, I have never enjoyed it as much as now – materializing my ideas with the help of my coding agents in a fraction of the time I needed before using them.

The End of the Developer: The Future of Software Development with AI Agents

Tue, 20 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The End of the Junior Developer: The Future of Software Development with AI Agents

In a world where artificial intelligence advances at breakneck speed, an uncomfortable truth looms on the horizon of the technology industry: the junior developer role may be on the path to extinction. This is not science fiction but an emerging reality that is already transforming how we build software.

The Silent Revolution of AI Agents
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Today, AI is no longer just an assistant that completes code. AI agents are evolving into autonomous entities capable of perceiving the development environment, making complex decisions, and executing complete programming tasks with minimal human oversight. We are no longer talking about simple tools, but digital collaborators that are reconfiguring the entire development chain.

From Assistant to Autonomous Agent
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AI-based code assistants like GitHub Copilot or Codeium have already transformed developer productivity. However, what is coming is far more disruptive: specialized agents working in concert to manage the entire development lifecycle.

What does this mean? While today a junior developer can still ask an AI to generate boilerplate code or explain complex systems, tomorrow a technical architect will be able to instruct a complete team of agents to:

Develop complex code based on high-level requirements
Perform exhaustive testing and bug resolution
Optimize performance without manual intervention
Manage deployments and update documentation

The Prediction That Is Already Happening
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Mark Zuckerberg stated it without ambiguity: “By 2025, AI will be capable of functioning as a mid-level engineer, writing code and potentially replacing software developers.” We are not talking about a distant future, but a reality that is already emerging.

According to Gartner, by 2027 generative AI will require 80% of the engineering workforce to upskill, creating new roles and eliminating others. The question is no longer whether it will happen, but when it will reach the tipping point that transforms the entire ecosystem.

Orchestration: The New Paradigm
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The key concept here is AI agent orchestration: a process by which multiple specialized agents work together within a unified system. Each agent focuses on a specific task — UI design, backend development, testing, security — while a central entity (human or AI) conducts the symphony.

The Architect as Orchestra Conductor
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In this new paradigm, the technical architect becomes the true protagonist. Their role evolves from solution designer to strategic director of an AI agent team, defining:

The system vision and requirements
Technical and business constraints
Architecture and quality standards
Resolution of complex problems that require human judgment

This transformation is already happening. According to ServiceNow/Pearson research, by 2027 18.7% of technical architect tasks will be at least partially augmented by AI. Architects will focus less on guiding code implementation and more on directing and supervising the autonomous work of agents.

The Experience Crisis
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Here the fundamental dilemma arises: if AI agents can handle the tasks traditionally assigned to junior developers, how will new professionals acquire experience?

One of the greatest concerns is precisely how junior developers can grow into mid-level and senior roles if AI handles most of the routine coding. Traditionally, developers have learned by doing — writing, debugging, and refactoring real-world code. Without that hands-on experience, there is a risk that developers will not fully understand the complexities of software development.

A Future Without Traditional Juniors
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My thesis is that the developer role, as we know it, will disappear. In its place, we will see:

Prompt and orchestration engineers: Professionals specialized in directing and extracting maximum value from AI agents.
Verification and review specialists: Experts in evaluating AI-generated code, identifying edge cases, and testing its reliability.
High-level system designers: Professionals focused on architecture and system design, where higher-level thinking remains primarily human.

Companies are already hiring fewer junior engineers due to AI-driven productivity improvements. This trend will only accelerate as AI agents mature.

Adapt or Fall Behind
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For current professionals, the message is clear: the developer career is evolving, not disappearing. The future belongs not to those who resist AI nor to those who depend on it exclusively, but to those who learn to work symbiotically with these tools.

The most successful developers will be those who:

Master prompt engineering to guide AI agents
Develop sharp evaluation and verification skills
Focus on areas where human creativity and systems thinking are irreplaceable
Deeply understand orchestration and collaboration between multiple AI agents

Are We Ready for This Change?
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If my thesis is correct, we face a radical transformation in how we educate future developers and structure technical teams. Universities, bootcamps, and companies will need to completely rethink their training and hiring programs.

The question is not whether AI agents will revolutionize software development — they already are — but how quickly we will adapt as an industry to a world where humans design and direct, while AI agents build and implement.

Software Developers Are the Blacksmiths of the Last Century

Tue, 20 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Software developers are the blacksmiths of the last century. As we’re living on the edge of technology change, AI has clearly come across every line of business; it is in the code. The traditional role of a developer is about to change significantly, making room for a future where “artificial developers” will be the protagonists.

In such a scenario, the focus comes upon process engineers transformed to be the architects of a new era. Their role transforms itself from the conventional boundaries: orchestrating AI to build complex systems with precision and innovation.

Such a shift in paradigm promises to redefine efficiency – minimizing human error and shortening the cycle of development. This will push traditional coding into the background while, at the same time, it gives way to an increase in demand for strategic, design-focused, and analytic skills – all of which imply the importance of adaptability in the digital age.

The future isn’t about an end of developers, it’s about transcending traditional roles to unlock unprecedented innovation and efficiency. Today’s developers will soon be like the blacksmiths of the past, who crafted essential tools by hand. The developers of the future will instruct AI to develop essential tools on an industrial scale and at a speed never before seen in the software industry.

Software Development on Carles Abarca

My AI Agent Is 2 Weeks Old. 72,000 Lines of Code. 5 Projects Shipped.

A Clarification First #

Meet My Digital Apprentice #

The Numbers #

How This Article Got Here #

The Real Insight #

What This Means #

The Bottom Line #

Vibe Coding: The New Era of Software Development

The Revolution Underway #

The Leading Solutions #

A New Way to Create #