"The smartest companies will hire more developers, despite the advancement of AI," — GitHub CEO on the future of programmers

In the podcast The Silicon Valley Girl, Thomas Dohmle, CEO of GitHub, stated that AI makes engineers more productive, not obsolete. According to him, technology has not yet reached a level where it can completely replace the work of engineers.

Published 2 min read

GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke believes that artificial intelligence will not replace programmers but will make their work faster and more productive.

The smartest companies will hire more developers in the coming years, not reduce their numbers. Artificial intelligence does not make engineers obsolete — it enhances them. One programmer with AI becomes 10 times more productive, and 10 such programmers become 100 times more productive.

Currently, development has become more accessible. Thanks to Copilot, anyone can start programming, even without a technical background. But at some point, we will hit the limits of "prompts" — and to move forward, we will need to understand exactly what the code does.

The idea that you can build a billion-dollar business without programming skills using AI is a misconception. If it were possible, everyone would do it. Scaling a project, making it fast, robust, and unique — these are tasks for professionals.

AI will not reduce the number of developers; on the contrary, there will be more of them. Learning has become easier, especially for young people. In the past, to learn coding, you needed books, a computer club, or a mentor. Now, a laptop and Copilot are enough. AI removes the main barrier — loneliness and the inability to ask for advice.

We are in a transitional period. Yes, some companies are pausing hiring and requiring employees to first "get up to speed with AI." But this is temporary. Soon they will realize that a productive engineer is an asset.

90% of code will soon be written by agents. But the volume of tasks will increase 10 times over — and there will be no less work for people. Companies that use AI to accelerate, not to cut costs, will win.

For those who fear losing their jobs: start mastering the technology. Become someone who knows how to manage AI, who leads it, rather than just observing it. There will always be a need for a person who sets goals and chooses the direction.

AI is not a threat, but a new language for expressing ideas. And, paradoxically, it makes the dream of programming easier: you can wake up on Sunday with an idea, and by evening — already launch an app. This is the future we are building.

You can watch the full episode here.