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GitHub CEO calls out AI panic, explains why the idea of coding skills becoming obsolete is 'mistaken'

GitHub CEO calls out AI panic, explains why the idea of coding skills becoming obsolete is 'mistaken'

Economic Times3 hours ago
Synopsis
AI won't steal your developer job, it'll multiply your value, says GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke. He believes AI enhances productivity, enabling companies to scale faster and pursue more ambitious goals. Dohmke dismissed the myth that AI alone can build businesses, stressing that deep coding expertise remains essential in this new era of accelerated innovation.
Agencies GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke has reassured developers that AI is not replacing them, but enhancing their impact. In a recent podcast, he said companies that understand AI's power will hire more engineers, not fewer. (Images: X, iStock) As the global workforce continues to grapple with fears of job loss in the age of artificial intelligence, GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke is offering a reassuring and compelling perspective: AI is not here to replace developers — it's here to supercharge them. In a recent podcast interview, Dohmke made it clear that companies with a smart vision for the future will not be slashing tech jobs, but rather expanding their engineering teams to take full advantage of AI's power. 'The companies that are the smartest are going to hire more developers,' he said. 'Because if you 10x a single developer, then 10 developers can do 100x.' His arithmetic is simple — and optimistic: artificial intelligence is not a subtractive force, but a multiplier.
According to Dohmke, AI tools like GitHub Copilot are creating a sea change in how developers work. They're reducing grunt work, helping engineers prototype faster, and allowing more creative room for solving complex problems. But despite this automation, Dohmke emphasized that technical expertise remains irreplaceable. He debunked the growing myth that AI alone can spawn billion-dollar businesses without human coding knowledge. 'The idea that AI without any coding skills lets you just build a billion-dollar business is mistaken,' Dohmke said. 'Because if that were the case, everyone would do it.' His message: AI is a remarkable tool, not a magic wand. Interestingly, rather than decreasing workload, AI is generating even more. By increasing the speed and capability of development teams, AI allows businesses to chase more ambitious goals that were previously sidelined due to complexity or time constraints. This hasn't led to empty chairs in engineering departments — quite the opposite. Dohmke noted that developer backlogs haven't disappeared. Instead, AI has unlocked the capacity to do more, not less.
He sees the current wave of layoffs and hiring freezes across the tech industry as temporary — a brief pause while companies recalibrate for the coming AI-powered surge. Calling this the 'most exciting time' to be a developer, Dohmke described how AI is finally making it possible to turn casual Sunday morning ideas into working mobile apps by Sunday night — a long-standing dream for many in tech. It's a world where AI assists in translating creativity into reality faster, but doesn't eliminate the need for the human behind the machine. As the head of GitHub, a platform at the heart of modern software development, Dohmke's words carry weight. His vision offers comfort for developers worried about obsolescence and sets a tone for a future in which man and machine work not in opposition, but in powerful, exponential collaboration.
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