Original: Simon Willison · 18/02/2026
Summary
Martin Fowler discusses the impact of LLMs on software development, questioning the future of specialist roles versus the rise of Expert Generalists.Key Insights
“LLMs are eating specialty skills.” — Fowler’s observation on the diminishing need for specialist developers.
“Will this lead to a greater recognition of the role of Expert Generalists?” — Fowler raises a question about the future roles in software development.
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Full Article
18th February 2026 LLMs are eating specialty skills. There will be less use of specialist front-end and back-end developers as the LLM-driving skills become more important than the details of platform usage. Will this lead to a greater recognition of the role of Expert Generalists? Or will the ability of LLMs to write lots of code mean they code around the silos rather than eliminating them? — Martin Fowler, tidbits from the Thoughtworks Future of Software Development Retreat, via HN)Related Articles
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Originally published at https://simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/18/martin-fowler/#atom-everything.