Anthropic engineer who created Claude Code says AI will take over most internet-based jobs — ‘It will be painful’

The United States will soon see an AI revolution; A top Anthropic engineer predicts that the next generation of AI agents will take over almost every internet-based business in the country.

Boris Cherny, creator of Claude Code at Anthropic, said in a recent podcast that new-age AI chatbots can run computers and that will change the business landscape in the US.

Cherny was speaking on “Lenny’s Podcast” hosted by Lenny Rachitsky when he made the final comments.

A senior Anthropic engineer noted that artificial intelligence systems like those sold by Anthropic could be activated through computer tools in the workplace. They may soon take on multiple roles and rotate the responsibilities of software engineers, product managers, designers and other knowledge workers.

“It will expand to pretty much any kind of work you can do on the computer,” Cherny said during the podcast.

The coming disruption is painful for many people, he said.

“This is going to be devastating, by the way. It’s going to be painful for a lot of people,” he said.

What Boris Cherny says about the impact of artificial intelligence

Boris Cherny is credited with the creation of Claude’s Law. The San Francisco-based lab, backed by Amazon.com and Alphabet’s Google, released Claude Opus 4.6, an AI coding tool, in February that created tension in the stock market and caused a sharp decline in tech stocks.

Anthropic said the new AI can work on tasks longer and more reliably, while also showing gains in coding and finance.

Unlike traditional AI chatbots that can produce text and images, an AI agent like the one Anthropic is launching can run commands, analyze documents, send messages to coworkers, complete tasks across apps, and even build websites.

This means that Claude Code can rapidly and increasingly do what a human does on a computer; In fact, the company recently said there was still time for talented people to actually be capable of doing what they do.

“This is what I think is bringing agency AI to people who haven’t really used it before, and people are starting to understand it for the first time,” Cherny said.

The creator of Claude Code said his own team now relies on AI to work faster, and productivity per engineer has increased since the launch of the new AI tool. He also said he believes the models will get even better.

In another recent interview with Y Combinator’s “Lightcone” podcast, Cherny said the title of software engineer will begin to “disappear” by 2026.

He warned that its wider impact remained unclear.

As a society, this is a conversation we need to figure out together,” he told Rachitsky.

“Anyone can develop software whenever they want,” added the Anthropic engineer.

He also had advice for workers transitioning from the way their jobs are done: Try AI tools and learn how they work.

“Don’t be afraid of them,” he said.

Cherny’s comments come amid a wave of layoffs at many tech positions and companies around the world.