AI and the Future of Junior Devs: Where do we go from here?

Hi all, If AI is already fixing small bugs, writing unit tests, drafting docs, and building deployment pipelines... ***how do junior developers actually learn anymore?*** It’s great news for experienced engineers looking to move fast. But it leaves the industry with an awkward elephant in the room: the tasks we’re happily offloading to AI are the exact same tasks we used to give entry-level devs to build their muscle memory. If we cut off the bottom rung of the ladder, how does anyone entering software in 2026 become the senior engineer we'll need in 2031? This August, we’re hosting a panel to dig into the reality of hiring, education, and career pathways in Adelaide right now. No fluff, and no repeating standard talking points about whether AI is "good" or "bad"- just real answers from people on different sides of the problem. **Date:** Wednesday, 26th August 2026 **Time:** 5:30 PM **Location:** CORE Innovation Hub, Ground Floor, SpaceLab Building, 4 Frome Road, Adelaide (Lot Fourteen) **Food & Drinks:** Free (thanks to our sponsors!) The Panel **Simon Cook (Encode Talent)** \- 20\+ years in tech recruitment\. He’ll share what Adelaide employers are actually hiring for right now\, whether junior roles still exist\, and what makes an entry\-level candidate stand out today\. **Wendy Perry (Workforce BluePrint)** \- 30\+ years in workforce planning and career development\. If the traditional path from junior to senior is broken\, what replaces it \- and whose job is it to fix it? **Sid Shah (MaxMine)** \- Delivering the view from inside an active product team\. What work is he happily automating\, and what is he deliberately keeping manual so developers can still learn? **Karin Hollands (Comunet)** \- Head of Innovation & Strategy\. AI lets junior devs pump out code fast\, but how do they learn whether it’s actually correct\, maintainable\, and safe for production? **Karan Sethi (AWS)** \- When AI agents can spin up cloud infrastructure and security pipelines in seconds\, what does a junior cloud engineer actually need to understand versus just prompt for? **Hosted by: Renu Kannu** (CORE Innovation Hub) We’re kicking off with one direct question for each panellist, then opening it up to debate and questions from the room. Whether you’re a student, junior dev, tech lead, recruiter, or manager trying to figure out your next graduate intake, come along and join the conversation. Bring your hot takes - this one will have plenty of room for argument. See you there, Rick and Chris **Thanks to our foundation sponsors:** Fivecast, Comunet, Snowflake, Fircy, Fortinet, Megaport, Cloudflare, and Infobiz Solutions. **And our ecosystem partners:** CORE Innovation Hub and The Innovation Factory.