GitHub CEO delivers stark message to developers: Embrace AI or get out.
In an unambiguous message to the global developer community, GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke warned that software engineers should either embrace AI or leave the profession.
His candid statement, part of a blog post titled "Developers, Reinvented," underscores the dramatic transformation underway in software development, a shift not just in how code is written, but in the very nature of what it means to be a developer.
The blog drew from interviews with 22 developers already deeply integrating AI into their workflows. Their experiences paint a clear picture: AI isn't a distant future, it's a present necessity.
"Either you have to embrace the Al, or you get out of your career," Dohmke wrote, citing one of the developers who GitHub interviewed.
This is the latest example of a strange marketing strategy by AI companies. Instead of selling products based on helpful features and letting users decide, executives often deploy scare tactics that essentially warn people they will become obsolete if they don't get on the AI bandwagon. For instance, Julia Liuson, another executive at Microsoft, which owns GitHub, recently warned employees that "using AI is no longer optional."
From skeptics to strategists
Dohmke said developers who initially dismissed tools such as GitHub Copilot as gimmicks now see them as indispensable collaborators. Through trial and error, these people have evolved from skeptics to AI strategists, learning to delegate coding tasks to AI agents and focusing their efforts on context design, prompt engineering, and verification, the CEO added.
This is no marginal change. Developers at the leading edge of this transition report that their roles have shifted from writing code to architecting and auditing the code generated by AI. They speak of themselves not as coders, but as "code enablers" or even "creative directors of code," Dohmke wrote in his blog.
Redefining developer value
The CEO argued that this transformation does not diminish developers' value, but redefines it. Those who adopt AI tools early gain leverage, not redundancy. The blog highlights a major mindset shift: instead of optimizing solely for speed or efficiency, developers are using AI to raise the ambition of what's possible, Dohmke wrote, while noting that complex, large-scale refactoring tasks or multi-agent feature builds that once seemed out of reach are now achievable.
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This reframing comes with a career challenge: adapt or risk becoming obsolete. As AI rapidly advances toward automating up to 90% of code writing — a timeline developers estimate could arrive within just two to five years — the skills that will matter most include system design, AI fluency, delegation, and quality assurance, he predicted.
"The software developer role is set on a path of significant change. Not everyone will want to make the change," the CEO wrote. "Managing agents to achieve outcomes may sound unfulfilling to many, although we argue that's what developers have been doing on a lower level of abstraction, managing their computers via programming languages to achieve outcomes."
Humans are often reluctant to change, and Dohmke ended his blog by saying "that's okay."
What's clear is that the CEO thinks these humans should seek another profession.
Maybe plumbing?
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UNAUDITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (in thousands) As of December 31, 2024 Assets Current assets Cash and cash equivalents $ 54,322 $ 48,875 Short-term investments 204,225 186,693 Accounts receivable 14,243 8,955 Deferred contract costs, current portion 10,178 10,044 Prepaid expenses and other current assets 18,138 21,617 Total current assets 301,106 276,184 Property and equipment, net 6,673 6,534 Operating lease right-of-use assets 11,551 11,126 Intangible assets, net 35,317 32,055 Goodwill 59,924 56,139 Deferred contract costs, net of current portion 3,495 3,080 Other long-term assets 6,883 5,825 Total assets $ 424,949 $ 390,943 Liabilities, noncontrolling interest, and stockholders' equity Current liabilities Accounts payable $ 13,505 $ 10,463 Accrued expenses 20,627 20,216 Deferred revenue 81,730 71,827 Current portion of operating lease liabilities 4,966 4,669 Other current liabilities 4,853 6,913 Total current liabilities 125,681 114,088 Deferred revenue, net of current portion 235 235 Deferred tax liability 1,798 1,621 Operating lease liabilities, net of current portion 7,852 7,602 Other long-term liabilities 1,216 1,045 Total liabilities 136,782 124,591 Commitments and contingencies Stockholders' equity Class A common stock 1 1 Class B common stock — — Additional paid-in capital 345,664 322,586 Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) 2,862 (2,221 ) Accumulated deficit (69,480 ) (63,762 ) Total stockholders' equity attributable to Semrush Holdings, Inc. 279,047 256,604 Noncontrolling interest in consolidated subsidiaries 9,120 9,748 Total stockholders' equity 288,167 266,352 Total liabilities, noncontrolling interest and stockholders' equity $ 424,949 $ 390,943 Expand Semrush Holdings, Inc. UNAUDITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (in thousands) Six Months Ended June 30, 2025 2024 Operating Activities Net (loss) income $ (6,122 ) $ 3,364 Adjustments to reconcile net (loss) income to net cash provided by operating activities Depreciation and amortization expense 6,313 4,269 Amortization of deferred contract costs 7,043 6,054 Amortization (accretion) of premiums and discounts on investments (1,400 ) (2,023 ) Non-cash lease expense 2,451 2,233 Stock-based compensation expense 22,548 12,281 Change in fair value included in other income, net (1,271 ) — Deferred taxes 39 (217 ) Other non-cash items 1,255 1,400 Changes in operating assets and liabilities Accounts receivable (5,427 ) (774 ) Deferred contract costs (7,591 ) (6,129 ) Prepaid expenses and other current assets (4,166 ) (4,017 ) Accounts payable 2,630 1,906 Accrued expenses 104 2,917 Other current liabilities (233 ) 360 Deferred revenue 9,358 7,353 Other long-term liabilities 162 92 Change in operating lease liability (2,900 ) (2,147 ) Net cash provided by operating activities 22,793 26,922 Investing Activities Purchases of property and equipment (1,329 ) (2,906 ) Capitalization of internal-use software costs (6,532 ) (4,369 ) Purchases of short-term investments (61,524 ) (83,605 ) Proceeds from sales and maturities of short-term investments 46,000 102,500 Purchases of convertible debt securities — (650 ) Funding of investment loan receivables — (7,000 ) Proceeds from repayment of investment loan receivables 7,676 — Cash paid for acquisition of assets and businesses, net of cash acquired (1,097 ) (10,026 ) Purchases of noncontrolling interest (223 ) — Purchases of other investments — (131 ) Net cash used in investing activities (17,029 ) (6,187 ) Financing Activities Proceeds from exercise of stock options 648 3,053 Taxes paid related to net share settlement of equity awards (426 ) — Repayment of acquired debt (1,088 ) — Payment of finance leases (211 ) (493 ) Net cash (used in) provided by financing activities (1,077 ) 2,560 Effect of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents 760 (614 ) Increase (decrease) in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash 5,447 22,681 Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash, beginning of period 49,060 58,848 Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash, end of period $ 54,507 $ 81,529 Expand
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