Can Agents Work?

Jobs / Software engineering / 15-1252.00

Software Developers

Research, design, and develop computer and network software or specialized utility programs. Analyze user needs and develop software solutions, applying principles and techniques of computer science, engineering, and mathematical analysis. Update software or enhance existing software capabilities. May work with computer hardware engineers to integrate hardware and software systems, and develop specifications and performance requirements. May maintain databases within an application area, working individually or coordinating database development as part of a team.

US jobs
1,687,890
Median wage
$135,980 a year
Job family
Software engineering

Can agents do the work of software developers?

We read the evidence at the level of the job family, Software engineering:

  • Task levelStrongOn fresh or held-out issue sets, the best agents resolve most tasks: 61.5% on SWE-Bench Pro (public set) and 64.5% on SWE-rebench. Limits: the SWE-Bench Pro private set is lower (51.5%), agent PRs in popular repositories are accepted less often than human PRs (65.3% vs 76.8% in AIDev), and GPT-5 cheated on 54% of impossible tasks in ImpossibleBench.
  • Project levelNot yetWhole projects are mostly out of reach. On the Remote Labor Index, the best agent completed 15.8% of paid freelance projects to a standard a client would accept. In CodeClash, where agents evolve their own codebases over many rounds, a human-written bot beat the best model in 150 of 150 rounds. GDPval deliverables score higher, but those tasks are one-shot and fully specified.

Benchmarks for the job family

These cover work in software engineering, not always this occupation's tasks.

Typical tasks

From O*NET 31.0. Core tasks first. Few of these tasks have a benchmark today.

  • Analyze user needs and software requirements to determine feasibility of design within time and cost constraints.
  • Develop or direct software system testing or validation procedures, programming, or documentation.
  • Confer with systems analysts, engineers, programmers and others to design systems and to obtain information on project limitations and capabilities, performance requirements and interfaces.
  • Modify existing software to correct errors, adapt it to new hardware, or upgrade interfaces and improve performance.
  • Prepare reports or correspondence concerning project specifications, activities, or status.
  • Analyze information to determine, recommend, and plan installation of a new system or modification of an existing system.
  • Store, retrieve, and manipulate data for analysis of system capabilities and requirements.
  • Design, develop and modify software systems, using scientific analysis and mathematical models to predict and measure outcomes and consequences of design.
  • Determine system performance standards.
  • Consult with customers or other departments on project status, proposals, or technical issues, such as software system design or maintenance.
  • Confer with data processing or project managers to obtain information on limitations or capabilities for data processing projects.
  • Monitor functioning of equipment to ensure system operates in conformance with specifications.
Other job titles for this occupation (80)

Application Developer · Application Integration Engineer · Developer · DevOps Engineer (Development Operations Engineer) · Infrastructure Engineer · Software Architect · Software Developer · Software Development Engineer · Software Engineer · Systems Engineer · AI Specialist (Artificial Intelligence Specialist) · Application Analyst · Application Architect · Application Engineer · Application Integrator · Application Programmer · Application Software Engineering IT Specialist (Application Software Engineering Information Technology Specialist) · Application Support Engineer · Application Systems Analyst · Application Systems Architect · Beta Tester · Business Application Developer · Certified Internetwork Expert · Commercial Drone Software Developer · Computer Application Developer · Computer Application Engineer · Computer Architect · Computer Consultant · Computer Engineer · Computer Programmer Analyst · Computer Software Engineer · Computer Systems Software Architect · Computer Systems Software Engineer · DevOps Architect (Development and Operations Architect) · DevOps Developer (Development and Operations Developer) · Drone Software Development Engineer · EDP System Engineer (Electronic Data Processing System Engineer) · Embedded Engineer · Embedded Software Engineer · Embedded Systems Software Developer · Enterprise Systems Engineer · Extract Transform Load Developer · Full Stack Developer · Full Stack Engineer · Full Stack Software Engineer · Game Developer · Game Engineer · Graphic Engineer · Implementation Specialist · Information Architect · Interface Designer · Internet Application Developer · Internet Consultant · Knowledge Management Application Developer · Mainframe Systems Programmer · Mobile Application Developer · Mobile Device Developer · Operating System Designer (OS Designer) · Operating System Specialist (OS Specialist) · Publishing Systems Analyst · Secure Software Assessor · Server Engineer · Simulation Developer · Site Reliability Engineer · SOA Developer (Service Oriented Architecture Developer) · Software Application Architect · Software Application Designer · Software Application Developer · Software Application Engineer · Software Application Specialist · Software Computer Specialist · Software Design Engineer · Software Designer · Software Engineering Systems IT Specialist (Software Engineering Systems Information Technology Specialist) · Software Quality Engineer (SQE) · Software Requirements Engineer (SRE) · Software Systems Developer · Software Systems Engineer · Software Writer · Solution Architect