  Software engineering researchers and practitioners have pursued manners to
reduce the amount of time and effort required to develop code and increase
productivity since the emergence of the discipline. Generative language models
are just another step in this journey, but it will probably not be the last
one. In this chapter, we propose DAnTE, a Degree of Automation Taxonomy for
software Engineering, describing several levels of automation based on the
idiosyncrasies of the field. Based on the taxonomy, we evaluated several tools
used in the past and in the present for software engineering practices. Then,
we give particular attention to AI-based tools, including generative language
models, discussing how they are located within the proposed taxonomy, and
reasoning about possible limitations they currently have. Based on this
analysis, we discuss what novel tools could emerge in the middle and long term.
