The most interesting findings of the report were how using Claude made the engineers feel about their work. Many were happy that Claude was enabling them to handle a wider range of software development tasks than previously. And some said using Claude freed them to think about higher level skills—considering product design concepts and user experience more deeply, for instance, instead of focusing on the rudiments of how to execute the design.
But some worried about losing their own coding skills. “Now I rely on AI to tell me how to use new tools and so I lack the expertise. In conversations with other teammates I can instantly recall things vs now I have to ask AI,” one engineer said. One senior engineer worried particularly about what this would do to more junior coders. “I would think it would take a lot of deliberate effort to continue growing my own abilities rather than blindly accepting the model output,” the senior developer said. Some engineers reported practicing tasks without Claude specifically to combat deskilling.
And the engineers were split about whether using Claude robbed them of the meaning and satisfaction they took from work. “It’s the end of an era for me—I’ve been programming for 25 years, and feeling competent in that skill set is a core part of my professional satisfaction,” one said. Another reported that “spending your day prompting Claude is not very fun or fulfilling.” But others were more ambivalent. One noted that they missed the “zen flow state” of hand coding but would “gladly give that up” for the increased productivity Claude gave them. At least one said they felt more satisfaction in their job. “I thought that I really enjoyed writing code, and instead I actually just enjoy what I get out of writing code,” this person said.
Anthropic deserves credit for being transparent about what it knows about how its own products are impacting its workforce—and for reporting the results even if they contradict things their CEO has said. The issues the Anthropic survey has brought up around deskilling and the impact of AI on the sense of meaning that people derive from their work are issues more and more people will be facing across industries soon.
