The rapid integration of AI into software engineering raises profound questions that go beyond technical performance: What does it mean to be a software engineer in an age where AI can generate, test, and verify code? How do we preserve professional identity, ethical responsibility, and meaningful collaboration when intelligent systems take over many of the tasks that once defined the role?

This presentation draws on Alfred Adler’s principles of individual psychology, particularly his concepts of social interest, inferiority, striving for significance, and cooperation, to explore how software engineers and educators can navigate the AI era. The Adlerian lens offers a humanistic framework for understanding how engineers can maintain purpose and identity, and how educators can reimagine the classroom to prepare students not just for what AI can do today, but for the evolving, deeply human responsibilities that remain.

The presentation argues that the future software engineer is not defined by coding skill alone, but by the capacity for judgment, ethical reasoning, and meaningful cooperation with both humans and AI systems. It also reflects on what an Adlerian classroom looks like in practice: one that cultivates courage, community feeling, and a growth mindset in the face of technological disruption.