I’m watching automation eat routine engineering in real time: Claude Code’s Routines now own triage, deploy checks, and docs drift—the chores that once justified junior roles. The State of the Sector 2026 shows budgets sliding from headcount to AI infra and demand pooling around seniors who can multiply machines, while entry work shrinks; schedules, webhooks, and per‑PR sessions turn agents into operational scaffolding and explain the layoffs-and-hiring paradox—fewer people, more always‑on workflows. I’m biased toward leverage, but the pattern is hard to unsee.
Software Engineering
- ‘Introducing Routines in Claude Code’: Claude Code introduces Routines (research preview): reusable automations defined with a prompt, repo, and connectors that run on Claude’s web infrastructure. Trigger them on a schedule, via a per‑routine API endpoint, or from GitHub events. Examples: backlog triage, docs drift, deploy checks, alert triage, feedback fixes, library ports, custom reviews. Each PR gets its own session for follow‑ups. Available to Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise with daily run limits.
Technology
- ‘The State of the Sector. What”s Happening in Tech in 2026 — Layoffs and Hiring. All at Once, Everywhere’: Tech in 2026 is bifurcated: historic layoffs (Oracle, Big Tech) coexist with rising job postings, led by AI‑native builders. IT employment fell since 2022, yet demand grows as firms reallocate spend from people to AI infrastructure and shift roles to lower‑cost hubs. Hiring favors fewer, senior, AI‑multiplying engineers; juniors and routine roles are hit. Spain’s ecosystem is expanding. The sector isn’t collapsing—it’s rapidly reshaping, so signal matters over headlines.