Introduction

AI is having quite an impact on the software development and training industries. Is AI really as helpful as the hype suggests, and does that mean that we no longer need any formal Python training?

This is based on two assumptions.

Assumption 1: We won’t need to code anymore

AI can now do all the coding for us. We just have to feed it our wishes and it writes our programs for us.

This works great for small, throw-away, non-critical applications. Any serious systems, processing sensitive personal or business data, used to make mission-critical decisions, or developed by multi-person teams over many months or years, still requires oversight by trained experts. Even if you don’t know how write code, you’ll be reading a lot of it - and be expected to understand it thoroughly.

Assumption 2: AI can train you

But why would someone go on a formal training course? Just get AI to teach, guide and mentor you.

Indeed, we can learn using AI. It adds just one more training method into the mix, together with books, videos, video games, training courses and more. It doesn’t make all the other methods obsolete.

Everyone learns in their own way, and may have different requirements at different times. A formal training course forces you to sit down and concentrate on the materials for hours or days at a time. Having others going through the course with you, and a trainer to guide you, all helps to keep you on track instead of getting distracted.

But what about the future?

The day will come when AI will be good enough to create any type or size of application, better than any single human or development team.

Maybe it will. Or maybe, as some research suggests, we realise the high token or equipment cost often isn’t worth. Maybe AI is a dead end, and will always need expert supervision. Or maybe we’ve just about reached its limit.

Or maybe we’ll need fewer programmers, and your training course puts you ahead of other job candidates. Maybe your highly trained Python team will always outperform non-expert teams, regardless of the state of AI, giving your organisation that competitive edge.

Conclusion

In short, as far as I can tell the need for training hasn’t gone away (yet?).