Will FDE become the next programmer?

The conclusion is: not necessarily.
But the capability behind FDE will certainly become increasingly important.

Why?

Look back over the past 30 years.

In the internet era, what enterprises lacked most were programmers.
Because technology had to become websites, systems, and software.

In the mobile internet era, product managers became increasingly important.
Because technology had to become products that users truly needed.

And in the AI era, the question has changed again.

We no longer lack AI tools.
What we truly lack is:

Who knows what AI should change?

So what FDE truly represents is not just a position.
It is a new way of working:

People who understand technology are going deep into business; people who understand business are starting to use AI.The wall between technology and business is being broken down.

This will bring a major change.

In future enterprises, there may no longer be only the traditional:
programmers, product managers, IT staff.

Increasingly, there will also be:
AI product managers, AI process architects, AI transformation engineers, industry AI experts.

The names may differ.
But what they do is essentially the same thing:

Turning AI into productivity.

So it is not important that every company will have a department called "FDE" in the future.
What truly matters is:

Every company will need FDE-style people in the future.

They may be in the IT department,
in the business department,
or reporting directly to the CEO.

01The Impact on Software Companies Is Even Greater

And for software companies, the impact is even greater.
Because in the future, software companies cannot only ask:
"What features does the customer want?"
They must start asking:
"What problem does the customer truly want to solve?"

The former is building software.The latter is building solutions for the AI era.

02The Same Applies to Individuals

The same applies to individuals.

If you can only call AI tools,
your capability is easily replaced.
But if you understand AI,
understand an industry,
and know how to truly deploy AI,
your value will only increase.

So the real inspiration from FDE is not:
"a new profession has appeared."
Rather, it is:

AI is redefining what it means to be an engineer.In the past, engineers solved technical problems.In the future, more and more engineers will solve: how technology changes the real world.

03The One Sentence This Series Most Wants to Leave Behind

So, at the end of this series, the one sentence most worth leaving behind is:

The true endpoint of the AI revolution has never been to make machines smarter and smarter.It is: to enable more and more people and enterprises to possess the ability to use this intelligence.

And FDE
is merely the earliest signal of this era.

The real changehas only just begun.