Software developers
Most tasks score high and the scores agree. Expect the role to be reorganised.
Exposure is not job loss: it shows how much of the work generative AI could do today. Whether that turns into transformation, productivity gains or cuts depends on employers, regulation — and on you.
0 = today’s generative AI cannot perform any of the job’s tasks, 100 = it could do all of them fully. The pale band is the spread across tasks.
Work out your own score ↓What can you do?
🤖 Written with AIThis text was written by artificial intelligence from the data points shown; it is built on verified figures but may contain mistakes.· 12/10/2026How is it made?
With an exposure score of 53/100, software development is transforming rather than disappearing. Testing and requirements analysis see heavy AI assistance, while strong projected employment growth keeps demand high for engineers who steer complex systems.
What changes
- Automating test suite generation, edge-case synthesis, and routine validation procedures.
- Accelerating requirements analysis, specification drafting, and initial system research with generative tools.
- Generating technical documentation, standard maintenance procedures, and routine boilerplate code modifications.
What stays human
- Consulting with engineering staff to resolve nuanced hardware-software integration constraints.
- Direct client consulting to untangle ambiguous business needs and maintenance priorities.
- Strategic architectural decision-making, ethical safety evaluations, and end-to-end system accountability.
What to learn
- Mastering AI-driven test orchestration and formal verification frameworks.
- Hardware-software co-design and low-level interface evaluation for specialized platforms.
- Requirements engineering and stakeholder communication to translate business goals into architecture.
Task by task
The ILO scored every task of the occupation separately, as the average of two AI models (GPT-4o and Gemini). The pale band is the range between the two models' scores, the dot the ILO's final score (for a few tasks expert review placed it outside the band).
- Developing and directing software testing and validation procedures66
- Researching, analysing and evaluating requirements for software applications and operating systems61
- Assessing, developing, upgrading and documenting maintenance procedures for operating systems, communications environments and applications software53
- Directing software programming and development of documentation52
- Researching, designing, and developing computer software systems50
- Modifying existing software to correct errors, to adapt it to new hardware or to upgrade interfaces and improve performance50
- Consulting with engineering staff to evaluate interfaces between hardware and software45
- Consulting with customers concerning maintenance of software system.45
How much does it affect you?
Every job is different: mark which of these tasks you do and how much, and we'll compute your own, time-weighted score.
For each task: I don't do it · sometimes · most of my job.
- Developing and directing software testing and validation procedures(66)
- Researching, analysing and evaluating requirements for software applications and operating systems(61)
- Assessing, developing, upgrading and documenting maintenance procedures for operating systems, communications environments and applications software(53)
- Directing software programming and development of documentation(52)
- Researching, designing, and developing computer software systems(50)
- Modifying existing software to correct errors, to adapt it to new hardware or to upgrade interfaces and improve performance(50)
- Consulting with engineering staff to evaluate interfaces between hardware and software(45)
- Consulting with customers concerning maintenance of software system.(45)
You are exactly at the occupation average. (The occupation's score: 53.)
About 75% of your working time goes to highly exposed tasks (score ≥ 50).
- • Developing and directing software testing and validation procedures
- • Researching, analysing and evaluating requirements for software applications and operating systems
- • Consulting with customers concerning maintenance of software system.
- • Consulting with engineering staff to evaluate interfaces between hardware and software
An estimate from the ILO task scores. Everything is computed in your browser — nothing is sent or stored.
How many people work in this occupational group?
Share of the Information and communications technology professionals group in total employment, by country (Eurostat, ISCO 2-digit — 4-digit breakdowns are not public by country).
Table view
| Country | Information and communications technology professionals |
|---|---|
| Luxembourg | 5.7% · 19 thousand · 2025 |
| Sweden | 5.6% · 297 thousand · 2025 |
| Netherlands | 4.9% · 485 thousand · 2025 |
| Finland | 4.3% · 112 thousand · 2025 |
| Lithuania | 4.1% · 60 thousand · 2025 |
| Switzerland | 4.1% · 196 thousand · 2025 |
| Ireland | 4.0% · 111 thousand · 2025 |
| Estonia | 3.9% · 27 thousand · 2025 |
| Belgium | 3.6% · 186 thousand · 2025 |
| United Kingdom | 3.5% · 1,206 thousand · 2025 |
| Denmark | 3.3% · 103 thousand · 2025 |
| Norway | 3.2% · 94 thousand · 2025 |
| Portugal | 3.2% · 167 thousand · 2025 |
| Austria | 3.1% · 138 thousand · 2025 |
| France | 3.0% · 893 thousand · 2025 |
| Poland | 3.0% · 520 thousand · 2025 |
| Cyprus | 2.9% · 15 thousand · 2025 |
| Iceland | 2.9% · 7 thousand · 2025 |
| Hungary | 2.9% · 134 thousand · 2025 |
| Latvia | 2.9% · 25 thousand · 2025 |
| Czechia | 2.8% · 147 thousand · 2025 |
| Germany | 2.7% · 1,149 thousand · 2025 |
| Bulgaria | 2.7% · 79 thousand · 2025 |
| Malta | 2.7% · 9 thousand · 2025 |
| Slovenia | 2.5% · 25 thousand · 2025 |
| Slovakia | 2.4% · 64 thousand · 2025 |
| Croatia | 2.2% · 38 thousand · 2025 |
| Romania | 1.5% · 116 thousand · 2025 |
| Spain | 1.4% · 317 thousand · 2025 |
| Greece | 1.4% · 60 thousand · 2025 |
| Italy | 0.8% · 191 thousand · 2025 |
What do they earn?
Mean gross monthly earnings in the major occupational group (Professionals). Eurostat's earnings survey only publishes pay by occupation at 1 digit, so this is the job's broader group. Enterprises with 10+ employees, 2022.
By country, at purchasing power parity (PPS/month), so countries with different price levels can be compared.
- Switzerland6,389
- Luxembourg5,274
- Ireland4,873
- Germany4,807
- Belgium4,799
- Denmark4,446
- Norway4,237
- Austria4,099
- Netherlands4,031
- Iceland3,875
- EU273,850
- France3,791
- Finland3,769
- Romania3,559
- Sweden3,416
- Spain3,413
- Slovenia3,326
- Italy3,305
- Cyprus3,271
- Lithuania3,221
- Croatia2,890
- Czechia2,871
- Malta2,825
- Poland2,783
- Hungary2,777
- Portugal2,755
- Latvia2,671
- Estonia2,599
- Bulgaria2,359
- Slovakia2,345
- Greece2,321
Source: Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey (earn_ses22_21), every four years. The United Kingdom is not covered by the survey.
Outlook to 2035
Employment in the Information and communications technology professionals group according to Cedefop's 2026 forecast.
thousand · Cedefop Skills Forecast 2026 · 2026–2035: projection
Replacement demand is the jobs left by people retiring or changing careers — even a shrinking occupation can have many openings.
Related occupations
Sources: ILO WP140 (2025) · Eurostat lfsa_egai2d · Cedefop Skills Forecast 2026 · WEF Future of Jobs 2025 · ESCO. The exposure score measures how much of an occupation's tasks generative AI could perform — not whether the job disappears. For information only, not career advice. How do we calculate this?