Why hasn’t AI killed the software developer jobs?

Each week new examples emerge of AI performing software development tasks, spurring predictions of mass layoffs of developers, perhaps before the end of the year. But, perhaps surprisingly, the number of software developers continues to grow robustly, adding over 400,000 jobs since ChatGPT was introduced in 2022. Why? Our data show that AI has, in fact, accelerated the software output per developer. But not only has the productivity of developers increased; their output has increased even faster. Developers are able to create new and better software products that consumers want. AI doesn’t just allow machines to perform some software tasks; it also helps developers do new and valuable things that raise the amount of software demanded. The net impact: so much more software is demanded that more developers are needed to produce it, even though AI means fewer developers are needed to produce a given quantity of software.

See the details in our TPRI Report, “Why AI hasn’t killed software developer jobs.”