with Ishan Babbar

Expert Ishan Babar tells us why “AgentForce will write the code for you” doesn’t mean the end of Salesforce developers — it means a major evolution.

Transcript:

Nichole: Now that we’ve all had some time to reflect on Dreamforce 2025 one topic really stood out. AgentForce Vibes. And the vibe from Dreamforce this year was clear AgentForce Vibes will write the code for you.So for the thousands of Salesforce developers watching right now — you might be wondering is my job officially dead? To help unpack this, we’re joined by Ishan Babbar, our Salesforce Core Practice Lead here at Ateko.

Ishan, what was your key takeaway from Dreamforceand how should developers be thinking about what comes next for them?

Ishan: Let’s be really clear, because this is one of the most important questions in our ecosystem. No — the developer job is not dead. But the junior-level coder role, the person who just simply translates requirements into basic Apex or a standard LWCthat role is transitioning. The hype says “it writes the code.” The reality is: it writes the first draft. AgentForce Vibe is a phenomenal productivity multiplier, but it’s not a replacement for skilled developers and to be honest, a lot of AI coding tools are trained on some relatively bad code.
Yes, it will write unit tests.

It will create a new Lightning Web Component in a few seconds. It will even draft a complex Apex class that calls an external API. But what it won’t do is understand your business context. It won’t see your org’s hidden governor-limit landmines. And it won’t build scalable, secure, or maintainable architecture without you.

I’ve seen many Salesforce orgs created prior to 2010 that are heavy users of Visualforce. and there are 100s of lines of code that can easily be done now in a few seconds with a Screen Flow. Today, there is less of a need to have developers with Visualforce knowledge. However, a significantly larger need for admins who understand best practices on creating Flows.

Finally, Agentforce Vibes will be a force multiplier it will multiply the productivity and strengths of a strong developer. Where a team may have needed 3 developers, perhaps they only need 2 due to productivity gains, but they will still need 2 very strong developers to oversee and validate the code the AI writes.

Nichole: That’s a fantastic clarification. So, in other words the developer’s job isn’t ending, it’s evolving.

So let’s get practical. If AgentForce Vibes is now the “junior coder” on the team, what’s the new job title? Are experienced developers now “AI Supervisors”, “Code Reviewers”? What does their day-to-day look like as a senior developer using these tools?

Ishan: “AI Supervisor” is part of it, but I think the better title is something along the lines of Solution Architect or System Strategist. Your value is no longer how fast you can type Apex it’s how well you can design the system that the AI operates within. So let’s break that down: So in the morning, you’re not jumping into the dev console or the VS code. You’re in a requirements gathering session, thinking, how can I structure this problem for AgentForce Vibes. You’re defining prompts, data context, and acceptance criteria before a single line of code is generated.

Now maybe mid-day you’re moving into generating and reviewing that code. So you ask AgentForce Vibes to build the solution. It generates the Apex, the LWC, and the unit tests. So now your job is to review not for syntax, but for scalability, security, and maintainability. And now let’s say you move into the afternoon. You’re now taking the feature the AI built integrating with other tools, Flows, APIs, automations across the org. Now AgentForce is the feature builder. The developer is the solution owner. You’re being paid to think, to architect, and to be the human in the loop who understands risk and context.

Nichole: That’s a huge pivot from the old “head-down coding” model. So, for the developer watching right now someone who’s spent the last ten years mastering Apex and is suddenly feeling a little left behind. What’s the number one thing they need to do to stay relevant in this new AgentForce world?

Ishan: That’s a great question. The most important advice I can give: is stop obsessing over syntax and start obsessing over architecture and best principles. The AI has mastered syntax. It will always type faster than you. But what it will never understand is the why behind your org’s design. So, the single best thing you can do? Is focus on architectural principles, go get your architect certs, read books about architecture, and even read books on clean apex code. Don’t just learn how to write an LWC, learn why you’d choose an LWC over a Screen Flow. Don’t just learn how to write a loop, learn why that loop might break governor limits and how a different data model could have avoided those situations. And for admins, don’t be afraid to be low-code or even pro-code.

So here is what I would say is a new to-do list for every developer: Like I said, Master Architecture. Get your Data Architect and Sharing & Visibility Architect certifications. These are the two areas AI can’t guess. Become a Full-Platform Expert. The wall between admin and dev is gone. The AI will write Apex and also create Flows, so you need to be able to understand both.

And finally, Learn to be a Master Reviewer. Your new superpower is spotting the one “confidently wrong” bug inside 100 lines of perfect-looking AI-generated code along with testing the capabilities generated by AI.The developers who thrive won’t think of themselves as coders anymore they’ll think like architects.

Nichole: Ishan, that’s incredibly powerful. So the message isn’t “your job is dead,” it’s “your job is evolving” from coder to architect, from typist to strategist. This is about leveraging these tools to build smarter, faster, and more scalable systems, not being replaced by them. So thank you for cutting through the hype and giving our developer community such clear, actionable insight.

Ishan: Of course, AgentForce Vibes isn’t taking your job. It’s changing what your job means. The future of development isn’t just about typing code It’s about designing the systems that write it and improving the productivity of individual developers.