While some companies continue to look at AI as an unethical tool, GitHub CEO considers it a positive one. In fact, he thinks so highly of AI tools that in one of his recent internal memo to the employees, he ends up warning that you either embrace AI or quit coding.
In a provocative blog post titled “Developers, Reinvented,” GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke has issued a strong warning to software developers: they must learn to work with artificial intelligence or face the possibility of leaving the profession. Dohmke’s message seems to be a direct call to action, urging developers to adapt to a new kind of coding where AI is not just a tool, but an essential partner.
Developers have a new role, says CEO
Dohmke’s insights are based on conversations with 22 developers who are already extensively using AI in their daily work. He notes that these developers are no longer just traditional coders but have transformed into “code enablers” or “creative directors of code.”
In this new role, their primary role is to guide AI systems and critically review the generated output, rather than spending their time on the manual task of writing every line of code themselves.
This shift presents a big challenge for those who resist adaptation. Dohmke cites estimates that AI could be capable of writing up to 90 per cent of all code within the next two to five years. In this future, the most valuable skills for developers will not be writing code but rather involve themselves in high-level tasks such as system architecture, understanding AI’s ways, and rigorous quality control.
AI a natural evolution of coding
While it is easy to dismiss Dohmke’s message as a mere scare tactic, the CEO frames it as a natural evolution of the profession. He argues that developers have always worked at various levels of abstraction, and AI simply raises that level, expanding the possibilities of what can be built.
This sentiment is echoed by Julia Liuson of Microsoft, GitHub’s parent company, who said that “using AI is no longer optional.” Dohmke’s post serves as a crucial wake-up call for the coding community, signaling that the future of software development is one where human and AI tools work hand-in-hand.
