Original title: When Digitalization Transforms Itself: AI, Software, and the Next Technical Order
Ina K. Schieferdecker · September 2026
In the past, computers helped people digitize paper files, automate chores, and build online networks. Now, software faces a major change: artificial intelligence is starting to build other digital tools. The researchers studied how agentic AI systems—meaning software that can take independent action—are stepping into software engineering. Instead of humans doing all the programming, these AI tools can plan multi-step tasks, write the software, test the results, and polish their own work over repeated cycles. This creates a recursive loop where software builds and updates other software. The paper concludes that this shifts the daily work between humans and machines. It also lifts software engineering into a critical foundation for societal value, technology control, and digital sovereigntyA nation's ability to control its own digital infrastructure and data..
Imagine a chef who writes recipes for other chefs. Normally, the chef writes a recipe, and another chef follows it. But now the recipe itself is being written by a machine that learns from tasting the dishes. Here, the machine is the AI, the recipe is the software, and the chefs are the digital systems. The process becomes self-improving.
Software engineers will shift from writing code to overseeing AI that writes code. This changes who controls digital infrastructure and how societies maintain technological independence. The entire economy depends on software, so this shift affects everything from banking to healthcare.
The abstract does not specify limitations; it is a conceptual analysis of socio-technical change without empirical data or specific case studies. It focuses on software engineering and does not address potential risks or other domains.
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When Digitalization Transforms Itself: AI, Software, and the Next Technical Order — Ina K. Schieferdecker
Abstract licence: CC0
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper. This is a preprint, so it hasn't necessarily been peer reviewed.