The AI Era: Let’s Face the Truth

A few days ago, I was talking to my brother — he works at PhonePe. We were casually chatting about how the tech industry has seen countless trends come and go — Blockchain, Metaverse, Web3 — all arrived with a bang, then slowly disappeared.

“We’ve seen a lot of things come into the industry, but none of them really stayed. AI feels… different.”

And honestly, he’s right. This time, it’s not just hype. AI is here to stay — and it’s growing faster than anything we’ve ever seen.

The Unstoppable Speed of AI

Just look at the progress in the past year. AI has gone from writing simple text to building entire apps, automating systems, and even creating real-time videos like OpenAI’s Sora.

Models like Claude 4.5 have made development unbelievably faster — what once took four months can now be done in a month or less. It’s not because humans suddenly became more productive — it’s because AI has quietly become the ultimate teammate: tireless, efficient, and incredibly adaptive.

Inside the Industry: What I Learned from PhonePe

During that chat, my brother mentioned something fascinating. PhonePe has tied up with Microsoft and is using open-source AI models internally. These models have access to parts of the company’s frontend codebase — the visual and user-facing elements of the app — but not the backend, which holds sensitive business logic and confidential systems.

Still, even with limited access, AI has been optimizing workflows, cleaning up code, and speeding up feature delivery. That’s a big deal. It shows how deeply AI can integrate into the developer’s ecosystem — even without full control.

The Open-Source AI Market Nobody Talks About

Until recently, I didn’t even know there’s a growing market where open-source AI models are sold — some built with RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) structures. I don’t fully understand how it all works yet (I’ll definitely study it more), but from what I’ve learned, it allows companies to feed custom data into an AI model safely — helping it understand your business or product without fully exposing your core data.

This is wild. We’re basically seeing a world where companies can buy, fine-tune, and deploy AI models just like they’d hire a developer.

The Truth: It’s Getting Tough for Freshers

Let’s be real — this AI wave isn’t all positive. While it’s amazing from an innovation standpoint, it’s making it harder for freshers to find jobs. Companies are realizing that one senior engineer with the right AI tools can now do the work of three or four people.

So yes, AI isn’t replacing humans yet… but the truth is, it’s already replacing roles. And this shift will only grow stronger.

If you’re truly great at what you do, no AI can replace you.

The best engineers, designers, and thinkers will always find space — because AI can replicate work, but not original thought.

The New Era of Tech

AI has completely changed how we build things. From writing production-ready code to generating visuals to handling customer queries, it’s no longer just a “tool” — it’s becoming an invisible workforce.

And this is both exciting and concerning. We’re entering an era where technology isn’t just evolving — it’s redefining what work even means.

So maybe AI hasn’t changed humans yet. But let’s face the truth — if things continue at this pace, it’s going to replace 70–80% of existing roles in the future. And that’s something the world needs to start preparing for — right now.

Final Thought

Every generation has its turning point. For us, it’s AI. The difference this time is — it’s not just another trend. It’s a complete shift in how the world operates.

We might not know exactly what’s coming, but one thing’s certain: The AI era isn’t the future anymore. It’s already here.