The Wall Street Journal

How AI Tools Are Reshaping the Coding Workforce

Leaner development teams and a higher bar for hiring new roles are some of the changes coming as companies turn to generative AI coding tools

How AI Tools Are Reshaping the Coding Workforce
Illustration: Thomas R. Lechleiter/WSJ

After years of hype and panic over how many jobs AI will extinguish or replace, it’s clear the technology is bringing some big changes to the coding workforce.

AI coding tools, which can automate large portions of code development, emerged as an early generative AI use case, driving double digit percentage efficiency gains and helping more code get written faster. Microsoft-owned GitHub Copilot, one of the more popular coding tools, has been adopted by more than 77,000 organizations in the roughly two years since its release, Microsoft said in its fourth-quarter earnings.

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