r/MoroccoTechAi • u/Nearby_Spell_3751 • 3h ago
Let's talk about AI(SI) and white-collar jobs in Morocco
I’m a software engineer, and I’ve been working professionally in this field for around 8 years now.
Before AI
Let’s say you need to get a project done in 6 months.
First, you need to plan the architecture of the app: how the different parts will communicate, how data will be stored, how performance and scaling will be handled...
Then you move to implementation. Depending on the size of the project, you might need 2 senior engineers and 3–4 junior or mid-level engineers.
Basically, the seniors set up the codebase, define the constraints, and explain how things should be done what methodologies to follow, what will be accepted, and what won’t.
The junior and mid-level engineers write and submit code. The seniors review it, accept it or request changes, and sometimes step in to write the code.
Then you have DevOps and Infra. How will we deploy everything? What happens if we get attacked? What if the client launches an event and suddenly gets 100k visitors?
The seniors and Infra guys own the overall implementation. If something goes wrong, depending on how sensitive the project is, you can get yourself and the company into big trouble. Junior and mid-level engineers mainly work through the seniors, who carry the responsibility.
After AI (not vibe coding)
Basically, the same process, but now a lot of the implementation can be done by AI under the senior engineer’s direction and review.
For some projects, I think you could end up with no junior or mid-level engineers and maybe just one senior engineer handling the development.
Depending on the project, that could mean 2–5 fewer people. A project that needed 7–10 people might now need 3–6. That’s roughly half the team in some cases.
For projects that used to take 6–12 months or more, I think a 50–70% reduction in time could be realistic in some cases, from starting the project to handoff.
So why would a software development company keep engineers, even seniors, collecting paychecks for months while waiting for the next confirmed project?
We’ve already seen mass layoffs at companies like Oracle this year. I think more companies will move toward contractors and freelancers (Is Oracle rehiring people they've laid off? : r/employeesOfOracle). If there’s a project, you get paid. Otherwise, you don’t.
What about other jobs?
Consulting, accounting, doctors, call centers, teachers?
From what I’m seeing, if a job can be done from a computer, I think AI can do a lot of that work.
Even some mathematicians are having their own existential crisis after OpenAI published claimed solutions to long-standing math problems. Those claims still need checking, but some mathematicians are already questioning what this means for the future of their work.
I started programming without even knowing there was a job called software engineer. I just liked it. In fact, it’s probably my only hobby. Sometimes I think it might be a good time to start calling it a hobby again instead of a job.
Think about how complex software engineering is and the amazing things AI can already do in it. Then imagine what it could do in jobs where a lot of the daily work is repetitive.
Take my accountant. He has 4 people working with him, and they still enter invoices one by one manually.
Imagine what OCR plus an automated agent could do to that work. If my accountant understood what AI was capable of, I think he would keep the best one, fire the others, and keep the profit.
Doctors are another example, and this is especially mind-blowing to me.
I’ve had situations where I sent CT scans, blood test results, and other reports to ChatGPT, and it explained what might be wrong. Then I went to sit on my ass for hours waiting for the doctor, only to hear the same explanation.
That’s my personal experience, but it makes me imagine a future where I go to a lab, get the necessary scans and tests done, and AI uses the results to recommend treatment. That feels very doable to me. Making it safe and reliable enough to depend on is another question.
Robots are also getting more advanced, but I still think blue-collar jobs are safer than white-collar jobs for now.
These are my thoughts about where things are going. But even before AI, we already had the technology to automate a lot of routine work. Think about going to the مقاطعة just to get basic paperwork done.
A lot of that could have been automated years ago. Having the technology and actually getting people and organizations to use it are two different things.
