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Medium reported severity

Web developer says employer cut their job because AI could do it, quoting the boss: 'I can just prompt the AI' (first-person account)

In a public post to r/Netherlands created on 29 October 2026, a full-stack web developer with ten years' experience writes that a month earlier they were told they would be fired because AI was able to do their job, and that the day of the post was their last day and last paycheck. In replies the poster quotes the boss as saying 'I can just prompt the AI and it seems to be doing what I need', says they had been at the company five years, worked on one month's notice under a Bulgarian employment, and had watched the company's code repository fill with AI commits. The poster also writes that they used AI heavily in the job and that the company wanted to save money. They say they have applied for developer jobs for 30 days without a workable offer and are thinking of leaving coding; they also say they are in no financial trouble. The account is uncorroborated and the employer is not named.

AI system
Unidentified coding tool
Occurred
29 Oct 2026
Reported
29 October 2026
Event location
Unknown
What the AI did
Relation unknown
Reported harm
Professional Harm
Whose AI use
An institution’s AI use
Setting
Work
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source
4 claims: 4 reported. 3 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: Unnamed AI coding tools that, by the poster's account, the employer's boss prompts to do the development work; no product is named

What Happened

The dismissal. The poster writes: "1 month ago I got the news that I will be fired due to AI being able to do my job (I am a full stack web developer with 10 years of experiance), so today is my last day and my last paycheck." Asked in the thread what they could have done, the poster replies that the boss's literal words were "I can just prompt the AI and it seems to be doing what I need", that they had set up automated deployment, and that they had watched the GitHub repository being flooded with AI commits and comments.

The poster's own qualifications. In another reply the poster says they used AI heavily in the job, that they were not replaced for refusing AI, and that the company wanted to save money, which they call the company's choice. They say they had been with the company five years and that, under their Bulgarian employment, notice was one month.

Afterwards. The poster says they have applied for developer jobs for 30 days, that most suitable offers are hours away, that they want to move away from coding, and that they are in no financial trouble.

Reported harm

The poster says they lost their web-developer job after the employer decided AI could do it, the boss saying they could just prompt the AI, and that they have not found a workable developer job after 30 days of applications (first-person account, uncorroborated).

Outcome

Ongoing

At the time of the post the poster had reached their last working day. No employer statement, severance terms or new employment is reported; the poster says they are looking for work and considering other trades.

What remains unknown

  • The employer's identity, location and own account of the reason.
  • Which AI tools the employer uses for development.
  • Whether other staff were let go and what severance the poster received.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The poster says they were told they would be fired because AI was able to do their job, and quotes the boss as saying they could just prompt the AI and it seemed to do what was needed; the poster also says the repository filled with AI commits. This is a reported institutional response to a decision to adopt AI: the poster's account is the only evidence, no AI output or action toward the poster is described, and the poster adds that the company wanted to save money.

4 claims: 4 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported The poster says that a month before the post they were told they would be fired because AI was able to do their job as a full-stack web developer with ten years' experience, and that the day of the post was their last day.

Causal attribution. Poster's account of the employer's stated reason; no employer statement was retrieved.

  • reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    '1 month ago I got the news that I will be fired due to AI being able to do my job'; 'so today is my last day and my last paycheck'
Reported In a reply the poster quotes the boss as saying 'I can just prompt the AI and it seems to be doing what I need' and says the company's GitHub repository was being flooded with AI commits and comments.

Causal attribution. Poster's report of the boss's words and of what they observed; uncorroborated.

  • reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'litreal words of my boss "I can just prompt the AI and it seems to be doing what I need"'; 'I've been watching the github repo being flooded with AI commits and comments'
Reported The poster says they used AI heavily in the job, were not replaced for refusing AI, that the company wanted to save money, that they had been with the company five years, and that notice under their Bulgarian employment was one month.

Causal attribution. Poster's own account, including a cost-saving motive alongside the AI reason.

  • reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'I did use AI heavily at my job'; 'I did not get replaced because I did not use AI'; 'i got replace because the comapny wanted to save up money'; 'I've been in that company for 5 years'; '(I was employed in Bulgaria)'
Reported The poster says they have applied for developer jobs for 30 days without a workable offer, want to move away from coding, and are in no financial trouble.

Causal attribution. Poster's account of their situation after the dismissal.

  • reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'I've been applying for Developer jobs for the last 30 days'; 'I definitely want to move away from coding'; 'Now I am in no financial trouble'

Sources

1 source inspected. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in English on 2026-10-30 through the arctic_shift archive API: the post by ID and 46 replies by the poster (latest 22:07 UTC on 29 October 2026), saved without the handle as bodies/wk-nl-1xinp0x.txt. The live thread was read through Reddit's comment RSS feed at about 03:03 UTC on 30 October (350 entries, 47 by the poster including the post); the live post matches the archived copy. The poster's handle is not recorded. Applies to s1.

Event countries: Unknown. Affected-person countries: Netherlands. Court countries: Unknown.

The poster says they moved to the Netherlands three months before the post and were employed in Bulgaria, working remotely; where the employer is established and where the decision was made are not stated, so the event country is left unknown.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-30: Published as a first-person consequential-response account: a web developer says the employer cut their job because AI could do it, quoting the boss's words, with the poster's own qualifications (heavy AI use, cost-saving motive, no financial trouble) recorded. The post and the poster's replies were read; the account is uncorroborated.

People described

The poster, a full-stack web developer with ten years' experience, by their own account

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed

One person: the poster, who says their own job was cut. The poster is not counted as a direct AI user, because the harm is the employer's decision. No colleagues are described as affected.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#first-person#reddit#employment#layoff#workplace-ai#consequential-response

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Web developer says employer cut their job because AI could do it, quoting the boss: 'I can just prompt the AI' (first-person account). AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-web-developer-says-job-was-cut-because-ai-could-do-it-and-boss-said-i-can-just-prompt-the-ai-first-person

BibTeX

@misc{2026_web_developer_says_job_was_cut_because_ai_could_do_it_and_boss_said_i_can_just_prompt_the_ai_first_person,
  title = {Web developer says employer cut their job because AI could do it, quoting the boss: 'I can just prompt the AI' (first-person account)},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-web-developer-says-job-was-cut-because-ai-could-do-it-and-boss-said-i-can-just-prompt-the-ai-first-person}
}

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