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Smart companies will hire more engineers, says GitHub CEO on AI jobs impact

As artificial intelligence continues to advance, GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke says businesses that embrace it are more likely to grow their development teams than shrink them. Speaking at the Silicon Valley Girl Podcast, Dohmke said, "The companies that are the smartest are going to hire more developers. Because if you 10x a single developer, then 10 developers can do 100x." His remarks come amid an intensifying debate over whether AI will replace human workers. According to a report by The Times of India, more than 100,000 jobs have already been cut by major tech firms — including Intel, Google, and Microsoft — since the start of this year. Many of these companies have cited slowing growth, rising operational costs, and a strategic shift towards AI and automation as reasons for the layoffs. Easy learning According to Dohmke, AI is lowering the barrier to entry for programming while also boosting the productivity of experienced developers. This shift, he said, is empowering more people to learn and apply coding skills in ways that were previously out of reach. "The most frustrating thing when you're learning something is that you're stuck somewhere, and then you have nobody at home or in your family or friends who can help you with that, because they're all non-technical. So, when we're saying AI is democratising access, that's what we mean. Everyone who wants to learn it can learn it," said Dohmke, as quoted by Business Insider. Need for professionals Despite this increasing accessibility, he said that businesses will still need professionals with solid technical expertise to get the most out of AI tools. While AI may help individuals develop small personal projects, running a successful company still depends on deeper knowledge. 'There's going to be a much bigger range — from consumer developers who build their own micro apps, all the way to professional developers building advanced AI systems,' he said. He further said that relying solely on AI without any coding knowledge to build a big business is a flawed assumption. "Because if that were the case, everyone would do it." Although some tech firms have slowed down hiring or even reduced staff while embracing AI, Dohmke believes this is a short-term trend. He expects that many companies will soon recognise the benefits of investing in more developers. "I think it's a temporary effect right now. This is the natural conclusion for the short term — we keep things stable, and we're trying to figure out how the market develops. But very quickly, I think we're going to see people that say, 'Well, wait a second, if I have one more productive developer, why wouldn't I hire another one, and another one?'", he said, as per the Business Insider report. Even as AI accelerates developer productivity, Dohmke said he has not seen any company claim it no longer needs their work. On the contrary, AI appears to be increasing the volume of work handled by development teams. "AI has already added more work to the backlogs. I haven't seen companies saying, 'Well, we're draining all our backlog and we have almost nothing left,'" he added.